Pearson attended the Summer Field School of the University of Western Ontario at Fort Penetanguishene and the Forget Site in Ontario in 1954 and participated in field survey and excavation with the Royal Ontario Museum (Serpent Mound), University of Toronto (Ault Park), National Museum of Canada (New Brunswick) the Bishop Museum (Hawaii and Tahiti) and Yale/National Taiwan University (Taiwan) from 1955 to 1965.
Pearson has written, edited, and/or translated a number of important books and journal articles on Japanese, Chinese, and Korean archaeology.
His publications mostly concern East Asian prehistory with a focus on subsistence, trade and exchange, and social and economic organization.
Part of his mission has been to make available in English the work of East Asian archaeologists and to show long term historical trends.
1Mid Coastal China in prehistory and history: an archaeological perspective: Ningbo and its environs.unpub ms available at Richard Pearson Researchgate.