Tong Enzheng (; 1935 – April 20, 1997) was a prominent Chinese archaeologist, historian, designer, and

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

author.

Career

Tong authored the textbook ''Cultural Anthropology'' and specialized in early southwest China. He also was involved in redesigning the

Sichuan University Sichuan University (SCU) is a national key public research university in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. The university is wholly funded by the Ministry of Education. SCU is one of the top universities of China, and a Class A Double First Class Univer ...

Museum. He also became noted for his criticism of the influence of

Lewis H. Morgan Lewis Henry Morgan (November 21, 1818 – December 17, 1881) was a pioneering American anthropologist and social theorist who worked as a railroad lawyer. He is best known for his work on kinship and social structure, his theories of social evo ...

on Chinese anthropology. Tong also led the "Southern Silk Road Project.", pursuing the study of links between ancient Southeast Asia and China. Not many of Tong's publications in Chinese have been translated. In English, one of his most widely cited articles is a review of Chinese archaeology under socialism. In science fiction he wrote the satirical ''New Journey to the West'', and the short story ''Death Ray on a Coral Island''. This won an award for "China's best short story" in 1978 and was later adapted to film. Both his science fiction writings as well as his archaeological and historical scholarly writings were reprinted in a multi-volume set issued in 1998 from Chongqing Publishing House (Tong Enzheng wenji, 3 volumes, 1998, ). He died in the US after fleeing China following the Government crackdown on the protests at Tiananmen Square. At the time, he was a visiting scholar at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the c ...

, which has instituted a lecture series in his name, an Enzheng Tong Archaeology Library located at its Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tong, Enzheng 1935 births 1997 deaths Chinese science fiction writers Chinese archaeologists Wesleyan University people Educators from Hunan People from Ningxiang Academic staff of Sichuan University Scientists from Hunan Writers from Changsha 20th-century novelists Chinese emigrants to the United States Chinese male novelists Chinese male short story writers People's Republic of China short story writers Short story writers from Hunan 20th-century archaeologists