Clunas attended Aberdeen Grammar School from 1959 to 1972, which was followed by a Diploma with Distinction in spoken and written modern Chinese from the Peking Languages Institute in Beijing.
[2] Afterwards, he went to the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, where he wrote his PhD dissertation on Injanasi's "Nigen Dabqur Asar": a Sino-Mongolian novel of the 19th century (completed 1983) under the supervision of Charles Bawden.
Clunas began his scholarly career at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where for 15 years he was on the curatorial staff and was responsible for the installation of new Chinese galleries.
He took up the position of the University of Oxford's Professor of the History of Art in 2007, becoming - as with all previous holders of the Professorship - a fellow of Trinity College.
[4] He has contributed to radio programmes including In Our Time[5][6] with Melvyn Bragg and A History of the World in 100 Objects[7] with Neil MacGregor.