Hmong studies specialist dies at 62

Dr Nicholas Tapp. [Photo/Australian National University]

Nicholas Tapp, an anthropologist and specialist on the Hmong people in China and Southeast Asia, has died in Shanghai. He was 62.

Tapp, who also was known by his Chinese name, Wang Fuwen, was a professor and director of the Research Institute of Anthropology at East China Normal University. He began his field work in China in 1988, mostly in the provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Guangdong.

"His research is very important in the field of Hmong study," said Huang Jianbo, a fellow anthropology professor.

Born in Britain in 1952, Tapp received his bachelor's degree in English Literature from Cambridge University in 1975. According to the hmongtimes.com, he went to Thailand with the UK's Voluntary Service Overseas after graduation and was fascinated by a Hmong village he visited in 1976.

He earned a doctorate in social anthropology from the University of London in 1985. Besides extensive field work in Southeast Asia, he also studied the Hmong diaspora in North America, France and Australia.

Tapp worked at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Edinburgh and the Australian National University before he came to Shanghai in 2010. He also led a forestry project from 1997 to 1999 for the UK Overseas Development Administration.

Tapp was a serious scholar and a devoted teacher, and his arrival was instrumental in the founding of the university's Research Institute of Anthropology, Huang said.

His last field research was conducted in May in Weining county, Guizhou province. He was diagnosed with cancer and was hospitalized after returning to Shanghai.

He had a special love for China, not only because of his academic interests and scholarly pursuits, but also because he had married a Chinese woman whom he met in Kunming, Huang said. They have two children.

Tapp died on Saturday. A memorial service will be held Oct 28 at East China Normal University.

Contact the writer at lixueqing@chinadaily.com.cn