The Impact Of Johan Gunnar Andersson In China—Sweden Archaeological Exchange During Modern Times

Johan Gunnar Andersson was a Swedish geologist, who was employed as a mining adviser to the mining administration department of Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce in1914. With expiration of his contract with the Chinese government, he returned to Sweden in the summer of1925. Preparations were started from1926for the construction of Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities with a number of Yangshao cultural relics as the initial collection which had been transported from China already, which was approved by the Swedish Congress. Moreover, He came to China once again of the same year for planning to accompany the Swedish Crown Prince Adolf’s visit and left in May1927. From1936to1938, Andersson conducted a series of archaeological excavations in south and southwest China. Until then, He had been engaged in investigation and research in geology, paleontology and archaeology for nearly fourteen years. Andersson had been criticizing by the Chinese academia due to his false doctrine in the staging of six major prehistoric culture and the views of origin of Chinese civilization "Chinese culture was from the western world". These research on Andersson still centering on review of the history of Chinese archaeology during twentieth century instead of his impact in China-Sweden archaeological exchange for a long time. This article aims to study the significance of Andersson in cross-cultural communication comprehensively from the perspectives of his archaeological activities in China, establishment and evolution of Chinese modern archaeology. Meanwhile, with analysis of Chinese-Swedish scholars’communication and development of Swedish sinology as well as Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, the dissertation attempts to provide a modicum of reference among academic exchanges between China and foreign countries in contemporary society.