Towards a Transpacific Archaeology of the Modern World Barbara L. Voss 1 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract The historical archaeology of overseas Chinese communities is a rapidly growing subfield. Although historical archaeology is not widely practiced in China, there are well-developed interdiscipinary research centers that investigate the history and culture of migrants’ qiaoxiang (hometown) societies. Scholars in American Studies programs throughout Asia are also bringing new perspectives to the study of Chinese migration past and present. By collaborating with these scholars, archaeologists on the Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project are developing new chronological, geographic, spatial, and material frameworks for the interpretation of overseas Chinese archaeological sites and landscapes. Keywords Overseas Chinese . Transnational archaeology . Railroad workers . Guangdong Province In the past 15 years, the historical archaeology of nineteenth century Chinese migration to the United States and other destinations has grown rapidly. Increasingly, archaeol- ogists studying the landscapes, sites, and collections representing these historic com- munities are calling for multi-scalar, diasporic, and transnational methodologies to account for the complex and far-reaching movements of people, objects, substances, and ideas (Adamson and Bader 2013; Bowen 2012; González-Tennant 2011; Lydon 1999; Ross 2011, 2013a, b; Staski 2009; Voss and Allen 2008; Voss 2005, 2015). However, transnational archaeologies of Chinese migration have been constrained by the fact that North American-style historical archaeology, which focuses on the post- 1492 late medieval and modern world, is not widely practiced in China. It has also been difficult for North American scholars to access relevant historical and cultural studies research that is being conducted in China on 19th century out-migration. Int J Histor Archaeol DOI 10.1007/s10761-015-0321-6 * Barbara L. Voss bvoss@stanford.edu 1 Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, 450 Serra Mall, Bldg. 50, Main Quad, Stanford, CA 94305-2034, USA