Academia Sinica oral history collection, 1950-1964

Biographical Note

In 1958, Professors Franklin L. Ho and C. Martin Wilbur formulated a project within the East Asian Institute of Columbia University to record the oral recollections of prominent Chinese leaders of the Republican era, 1911-1949. This prominent project, titled the Chinese oral history project, featured Hu Shih as a narrator in its first year. That same year, Hu Shih became President of Academia Sinica in Taipei. A proponent of oral history, Hu encouraged many contemporaries to participate in Columbia's Chinese oral history project and sought to start a similar project at Academia Sinica. In 1958, C. Martin Wilbur met Guo, Tingyi (Wade Giles: Kuo, Ting-yee; traditional Chinese: 郭廷以), Director of the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica (中央研究院近代史研究所), and they began planning a new project at the Institute. Columbia subsidized the project in the earliest years. In 1962, with the aid of Wilbur and other leading China scholars in the United States, Academia Sinica obtained a ten-year grant from the Ford Foundation. This allowed them to support and expand the project. The interviews were published as books in Taiwan. In return for the initial funding from Columbia and Wilbur's strong support, the Institute of Modern History deposited the thirty-seven unpublished memoir versions of the interviews at Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library when the interviews were published as books

Scope and Contents

The collection contains 37 volumes of unpublished handwritten manuscripts of oral histories, diaries, and memoirs handwritten by the Academia Sinica oral history staff in traditional Chinese characters dating from 1959 to 1965. The collection is comprised of the unpublished memoir versions of the interviews, which the Institute of Modern History at Academia Sinica would later formally publish as books. The book versions are generally shorter in length, making the collections interviews a unique source of information. The project interviewed people whom were involved in party politics, government, military, foreign affairs, communication, transportation, finance, and academic circles. Nearly all provinces of Republican China are represented. Each interview includes an English abstract and some have English translations prepared by the Chinese oral history project staff (Larry N. Shyu, Hsia P'ei-jan, Te-kong Tong, Kai-fu Tsao, and Julie Wei) when the Chinese transcripts arrived from Academia Sinica. The collection also includes the a few participants' interview photographs Participants and paginations: Bai, Yu (白瑜; Pai Yu), 49; Chen, Zhaoying (陳肇英; Ch'en Chao-ying), 72; Deng, Jiayan (鄧家彥; Teng Chia-yen), 6 photographs collected by him; Fu, Bingchang (傅秉常; Fu P'ing-ch'ang), 84; Gong, Hao (龔浩; Kung Hao), 43; He, Guoguang (賀國光; Ho Kuo-kuang), 58; Hu, Zongduo (胡宗鐸; Hu Tsung-to), 43; Ji, Yiqiao (戢翼翹; Chi Yi-ch'iao), 86; Lei, Yin (雷殷), 42; Li, Hongwen (李鴻文; Li Hung-wen), 23; Li, Pinxian (李品仙; Li P'in-hsien), 111; Li, Wenbin (李文彬; Li Wen-pin), 45; Li, Yuwan (李毓萬; Li Yu-wan), 40; Liu, Hangchen (劉航琛; Liu Hang-shen), 164; Liu, Jingshan (劉景山; Liu Ching-shan), 91; Liu, Mao'en (劉茂恩; Liu Mao-en), 160; Liu, Shiyi (劉士毅; Liu Shih-I), 77; Ma, Chaojun (馬超俊; Ma Ch'ao-chun), 145; Mei, Qiaolin (梅喬林; Mei Ch'iao-lin), 160; Mo, Jipeng (莫紀彭; Mo Chi-p'eng), 152; Nie, Qide (聶其德, 張其煌夫人; Mme. Zhang Qihuang; Nee Nieh Ch'i-te, Mme. Chang Ch'i-huang), 30; Qin, Dechun (秦德純; Ch'in Te-ch'un), 81; Shen, Honglie (沈鴻烈; Shen Hung-lieh), 57; Shi, Jingting (石敬亭; Shih Ching-t'ing), 81 in Chinese, 150 in English; Sun, Lianzhong (孫連仲; Sun Lien-chung), 56; Wan, Yaohuang (萬耀煌), 1,008; Wang, Chongping (汪崇屏; Wang Ch'ung-p'ing), 121; Wu, Kaixian (吳開先; Wu K'ai-hsien), 34; Xiang, Goufu (向構父; Hsiang Kuo-fu, Hsiang Jui-i), 28; Xiong, Bin (熊斌; Hsiung Pin), 103; Yang, Sen (楊森; Yang Sen), 286; Yuan, Tongchou (袁同疇; Yuan T'ung-ch'ou), 51; Zhang, Tinge (張廷鍔; Chang Ting-ngo), 58; Zhang, Weihan (張維翰; Chang Wei-han), 133; Zhang, Zhiben (張知本; Chang Chih-pen), 80 in Chinese, 60 in English; Zhao, Hengti (趙恆惕; Chao Heng-t'i), 48 in Chinese, 27 in English; Zhong, Boyi (鍾伯毅; Chung Pai-yi), 157; Zhou, Yongneng (周雍能; Chou Yung-neng), 169

Subjects

• China--History, Military--1912-1949.
• China--History--20th century.
• China--History--1912-1928.
• China--History--1928-1937.
• China--History--Civil War, 1945-1949.
• China--History--Northern Expedition, 1926-1928.
• China--History--Republic, 1912-1949.
• China--Politics and government--20th century.
• China--Politics and government--1912-1949.
• Education, Higher--China--History--20th century.
• Education--China--History--20th century.
• Education--China--History--1912-1949.
• Education and state--China--History--20th century.
• Interviews
• Manchuria (China).
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1945.
• Taiwan--History--1945-
• Zhongguo guo min dang.