Microcores and microblades produced with peculiar techniques can be divided into the microblade and geometric microlith traditions. The former was distributed in northeastern Asia and northwestern America and distinctly differ from the latter which prevailed in Eurasia and northern Africa. The research on microliths in China has gone through two stages: in the first 50 years, it was mainly carried out in northern steppes and the achievements were roughly limited within the Neolithic Age, while in the second half century, the work was enlarged to the northern, southwestern and southeastern regions and, chronologically, pushed to the late Palaeolithic. The results suggest that the microblade tradition may have originated in northern China and its adjacent areas, which constitutes a breakthrough of previous notions. As for the small-sized stone tools discovered in the southeastern region,they are not concerned with the microblade tradition.
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