Yuqing Tao

Yuqing Tao is an art history and archaeology student. He was trained in archaeology, geology, and art history at Oberlin College. He graduated from the M.A. program in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2025.

His main research field is Chinese cave temples, especially the smaller and/or later ones. According to a national survey in 2021, of the at least 5,986 known cave temples and cliff sculpture sites in China, less than one-sixth have been archaeologically surveyed and published. Scholars mostly focus on traditionally important sites, while a large number of known small-scale cave temples have been marginalized. And the day when undiscovered sites are discovered by scholars is far away. Recently, self-media has exploded, and people have begun to share their lives online, including ancient sites accidentally photographed during travel. He and his collaborators filtered videos of field stone carvings in large quantities from social media and screened out potential new sites. He and his collaborators have discovered more than 30 new sites and have successfully conducted a series of nine field archaeological surveys, and have successfully published two research papers.

He is also a trained field archaeologist, technician, and conservator of ceramics and stone carvings. He firmly believes that the quality of archaeological excavation and data publication is the cornerstone of academic research. He has served as an excavator, research assistant artifact manager, and/or conservator in several archaeological excavation projects. He has honed his field archaeological skills and conducted front-line teaching and research in these experiences. He is the co-author and archaeological illustrator of more than ten published or accepted field archaeological excavation reports and a monograph.

During his studies, he showed a broad interest in other material culture. He once researched a Qing Dynasty folk religious manuscript with the help of Oberlin East Asian Studies Librarian Runxiao Zhu (Current Head of the East Asian Library of UPitt) and other scholars in the library of Oberlin College. This manuscript is considered to be the only complete example of this book, which was once only known by its title. He also identified two new pieces of Shang Dynasty oracle bone s in the collection of the Allen Memorial Art Museum that had almost never been noticed by the academic community, and conducted research on their historic provenance with scholars.

He was also enthusiastic about donating natural history specimens and historical documents of scholarly value. He has proudly donated to the Special Collections at Mary Church Terrell Library of Oberlin College, Natural History Collections of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, W. E. B. Du Bois Center of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Shanghai Songhu Memorial Hall for the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and The Exhibition Hall of Crime Evidence of Japanese Army Unit 731.