Lothar von Falkenhausen, Lawrence Scott Davis (1951–2024).
What a remarkable gesture by Lothar von Falkenhausen: to write this piece for Sino-anthropologist L. Scott Davis, which turns out to be a superb combination of obituary, multiple-book review, state of the field–and a reflection on the paradoxes and vicissitudes of scholarly life as well:
For most Sinologists, Lawrence Scott Davis (he went by Scott) is not a household name. But it should be. Scott was without question one of our generation’s most startlingly original minds in the field of China studies—a genuine prodigy (qicai 奇才)—one of a very small number of scholars able to conduct both high-level ethnographic research in contemporary Taiwan and in-depth, archaeologically informed philological investigations into Chinese ancient classical texts. Besides, he was a stupendously well-read and polyglot all-round intellectual, a technology wizard, a gifted musician and songwriter. His academic career may have been checkered and peripatetic; but his publications (…) are notable for their originality, theoretical sophistication, broad outlook, and cultural sensitivity. In writing this obituary, I hope in particular to whet the readership’s appetite for his soon-to-appear magnum opus (Davis forthcoming), which tragically he did not live to see in print.