Guava Cat Archaeology: Papers in memory of Prof. Pochan Chen

This symposium brings together students, classmates, collaborators and teachers of Prof. Pochan Chen, of National Taiwan University, who died unexpectedly at the age of 41 in June of 2015. Prof. Chen worked extensively on issues related to culture contact and trade, primarily in China. His work spanned research on salt production and exchange, the construction of social identity in burial contexts, and regional processes related to economic activity and the formation of identity, including World Systems Theory, Trade Diasporas, Ethnogenesis, and Gender. In addition, he stimulated an entire generation of scholars in Taiwan interested in historical archaeology in contexts beyond mainland China, including Taiwan, the Philippines and elsewhere.