Up-Dating on Columbia’s Manuscripts on the Chinese Republican Period

Up-Dating on Columbia's Manuscripts on the Chinese Republican Period In the February 1980 issue of Chinese Republican Studies Newsletter I described the holdings of Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library that wo\tld interest modern China scholars, mostly documents and memorabilia acquired by the Chinese Oral History Project. Now that information should be updated. The Chang Fa-:-:k 'uei oral autobiography done wi tn Julie Lienying How is now open and may be procured on microfiche (see below). The autobiography runs to about 1,000 pages and details the military career of this outstanding Hakka general who won great renown in the Northern Expedition and the Sino-Japanese War. Likewise open is a collection of documents that General Chang brought with him to Hong Kong when he retired there, described in the above article. Most important is a microfilm ~opy of the General's diary from Northern Expedition days forward (this microfilm is not for sale, but may be consulted at Columbia). The Ch'en Kuang-fu papers are now fully open. K.P. Chen, as he was known to Westerners, was a prominent banker, financier, and government official during most of the Republican period. The papers now opened include "Memos, diaries, notes, etc. 1942-50" and a manuscript in Chinese entitled "Ch'en Kuang-fu and Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank" by Chiang Kia-ngao. The third part of General Li Han-hun's autobiography is now op~n because of his death. It deals with the critical year 1949. Added to the collections are four valuable manuscript items: 1) "Secret Years of Chiang Kai-shek" by Ginny Connor. This contains 120- pages of notes and other materials which Ms. Connor took when reading a 425-page manuscript in English, which was a translation of an autobiographical account by Jennie Che-ju Chen, the wife of Chiang Kai-shek from December 1921 until she departed for the United States in August 1927. The manuscript centered on Ms. Chen's years with General Chiang, and was to have been published in the United States until it was suppressed by agents of the Kuomintang, who bought back all copies in March 1965. Both the notes taken from the manuscript, and information on the efforts to suppress it have considerable interest. - , 2} Chester Fritz' Si~-Month Diary Through Inland China in 90 1917 is of interest for detailed- information on conditions in far West China that Mr. Fritz noted daily. At the end are appendices itemizing expenses, major places visited, and a "tentative glossary ." 3) A package of correspondence concerning W.H. Donald, the well known Australian "Old China Hand," who came to China in the early 1900s and died there in 1947. The correspondence between Mr. Donald and Mr. Harold Hochschild begins in 1924 and ends shortly before Mr. Donald's death. There is much of historical interest: 4) The Influences of American Education in South China b y Donald C. Dunham, is a manusbript by the then American Vice-Consul in Canton, submitted to the State Department in 1935. The text, some 165 pages, discusses systematically and in historical perspective the contributions of Chinese "returned students" in fields such as agriculture, architecture, aviation, banking, etc., in South China. It also singles out five American-educated Chinese who distinguished themselves in public life, and there is a section devoted to American-educated women. We hope soon to have opened the unfinished autobiography of Mr. Chen Li-fu, done with Ms. Julie How. This contains several hundred pages of partially edited manuscripts and about 800 pages of interview transcripts concerning Mr. Chen's career until 1948. The family of the late Professor L. Carrington Goodrich has given to Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library an extensive collection of his papers, which are being catalogued. His entire life was closely connected with China and Chinese studies. For those who may not have a copy of my February 1980 article on Columbia's manuscript -holdings relevant to Republi~an China-, let me say it describes the oral histories of the nine eminent persons now available on micro-reproduction; and the now-published autobiographies of Li .Tsung- jen and Choy Jun...