The Esherick-Ye Family Foundation was only established in  2016.  Our history is accordingly very brief.  The Foundation was formed by Joseph W. Esherick and Ye Wa so that they could use their modest savings to support the sort of scholarship to which they have devoted their lives. To Esherick and Ye , there is no higher praise for scholarly work than “solid.”  Careful, empirically based, clearly reasoned scholarship is far more valuable than work with the superficial appeal that comes with novelty or clever speculation. This is the sort of work that Esherick encouraged from the students he mentored at UCSD, and that Ye Wa has promoted in archaeology. The Foundation hopes, in the years to come, to continue to promote this sort of research in the China field through small grants to young scholars. There will be annual competitions for small grants, with deadlines for applications in January, and grantees and their projects announced each spring.