The author compares and contrasts the development of American archaeology and Chinese archaeology and discusses its strength and weaknesses. While American archaeology has developed into "postprocessual archaeology" - the interpretive period. Chinese archaeology has almost finished the building of a cultural historical framework across China. With a solid cultural historical framework in hand, and the accumulation of archaeological information, the time is right for the Chinese archaeologists to shift their focus to the reconstruction of past human behavior. On the one hand, the practice of Chinese archaeology has to continue depending on its unique characteristics-typology, stratigraphy, nationalism, and historiography, as well as large scale excavation. On the other hand, it has to develop a theory of archaeological culture processes that comprises of two component parts: cultural lineage and cultural dynamic theory.
