Xia joined the staff of the Central Museum upon his return to China. He joined the subsequently formed Department of Archeology of the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica (1943–49) and became the director in 1948. He chose to stay in China when the institution moved to Taiwan in 1949, anticipating the defeat of the Kuomintang by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the
Chinese Civil War. He briefly went back to his home province to teach at the Zhejiang University. In 1950, he was appointed associate dean at the newly established Chinese Academy of Sciences and headed field archeological projects. Later in the same year, he led his first excavation in the Henan province, which discovered artifacts from the Shang dynasty. He joined the CCP in 1959 and was elected as a deputy to the second to sixth National People's Congress. Apart from actively heading archeological excavations, Xia also started publishing the first Chinese archeological journals,
Kaogu and
Kaogu Tongxun in 1966 and had taken up the position of editor in chief. Publications of both journals were paused in 1966 due to the Cultural Revolution but publications were fortunately resumed in 1972 under the approval of General Secretary Zhou Enlai. Despite his dedication and devotion to Chinese archaeology and China, he together with many of his colleagues and students were categorized as '
capitalist roaders', 'rightists' and '
Cow demons and snake spirits' who were obstructing the goal of the revolution in eradicating social classes. Hence, throughout the Cultural Revolution (until 1972), Xia was paraded with the others in public and had his belongings such as his diaries confiscated by the Red Guards. During the time, even his undergraduate dissertation was used against him as it included pro-nationalist (the Kuomintang) contents (which Xia noted that he was forced by Chiang to do so back then in his diary). He was then sent to a 'cow shed' (牛棚), the term for re-education camps established during the Cultural Revolution that were targeted at intellectuals, in Beijing. He was also forced to attend the
May Seventh Cadre School, which aimed to 're-educate' students about the greatness of
Mao Zedong. He was finally released in 1971 upon being deemed 'fit' by authorities and resumed his archaeological work. With China's improving relations with the West as a result of the Sino-Soviet split, Xia was able to attend foreign conferences and receive foreign academics. The Albanians' visit in 1971 to repair historical books as well as the Japanese's visit in the same year for academic exchanging purposes were among the myriad of opportunities that he took part in. Xia edited numerous Chinese archaeological publications including the
Report of the Excavation in the Hui District (輝縣發掘報告) and the
Report of the Excavation in Changsha (長沙發掘報告) before the Cultural Revolution. Xia also contributed greatly to the preservation of Chinese artifacts by advising the drafting of the Cultural Relics Protection Law, pointing out the section of 'Relics Trade' should be discarded as it directly contradicts the law's intention to protect relics. The opening up of China in the 1970s allowed Xia to reunite with his teachers and conduct exchanges with fellow foreign scholars. Xia's contributions to the field of archaeology were finally recognized internationally and were acknowledged by esteemed institutions. He received eleven memberships throughout 1974–85 from the British Academy, the German Archaeological Institute, the Swedish Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, the U.S. Academy of Sciences, the Third World Academy of Sciences, The International Association for Mediterranean and Oriental Studies etc. == Xia and the development of Egyptology in China ==