. Anne P. Underhill Awarded Honorary Citizenship of Rizhao

On August 3rd, Rizhao honorary citizenship award ceremony and unveiling of the SDU Archaeological Practice Base was held in Rizhao. President Xu Xianming attended the ceremony. Together with Secretary of the Rizhao Municipal Committee of the Communist Party and Chairman of Rizhao NPC Yang Jun, he unveiled SDU Archaeological Practice Base. The Mayor of Rizhao Zhao Xiaowei announced the decision to confer the title of Honorary Citizenship on Prof. Anne P. Underhill.

At the ceremony, President Xu congratulated Prof. Underhill on her receiving the title of Honorary Citizenship of Rizhao. He highly acknowledged the fourteen years cooperative archaeological project which won the Field Archaeology Award of the State Administration for Protection of Cultural Relics as a genuine multi-disciplinary international project. President Xu also praised Prof. Underhill s contribution to the archaeology and cultural relics protection and research of Rizhao. Zhao Xiaowei announced the resolution issued by the Municipal People s Congress of granting Prof. Underhill the title of Honorary Citizenship to reward her archaeological study and cultural relics protection and research of Rizhao, especially her achievements in the archaeological study of Longshan Culture and her contribution to the cultural communication between China and the USA. He said that since 1990s, SDU has cooperated with archaeological scholars home and abroad to improve the archaeology and cultural relics protection of Rizhao. He acknowledged the cooperation between SDU and Rizhao as fruitful and successful and the SDU Archaeological Practice Base as of great significance in promoting Rizhao s culture. He expressed his wish that the city and SDU will promote this cooperation to a new level. Prof. Underhill expressed her gratitude to the municipal government and the municipal People s Congress and her willingness to extend cooperation with SDU. She said she would consider her Honorary Citizenship as an honor of her team rather than her own.

Prof. Tong Guangwu, director of International Office of SDU, Prof. Fang Hui, deputy-director of SDU Department of Academic Research, Prof. Yu Haiguang of the School of History and Culture, SDU, and other relative staff were also at the ceremony.

Prof. Anne Underhill is a professor of anthropology in Yale University. She has been Li-Ching Professor by SDU since 2005. She received the national Friendship Award in 2008.

By Cui Xinyuan