Dr. Chang, born in Beijing, graduated from National Taiwan University (1954) and received a Ph.D. from Harvard (1960). A specialist in Shang period from 1600 to 1200 B.C. He taught at Yale University, 1967-1977, later joined Harvard in 1977 and was named the John E. Hudson Professor of Archaeology. He retired in 1996.
Professor Chang did many field trips and his final excavations trip was conducted in the 90's at Shangqiu, Human Province, China. As Wolfgang Saxon write (New York times, January 16, 2001, "Professor Chang and his colleagues concentrated on a hypothesis that the dynasty took its name from the first seat of their domain, a town called Shang...the capital of at least the first three Shang rulers." Professor Chang was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Vice-President of the Academia sinica in Taipei, Taiwan.
Professor Chang is a prolific writer. His latest books are two volumes of The Chinese Bronze Age (1983 and 1990)