The First Fifty Years of the China Collection

Early years

Due to the missing status of the library’s first accession file, it is difficult to trace when exactly the library began to collect materials on China. However, because of Hawaii's unique geographic location, history, and large Asian descent, we believe that the library had been collecting materials on China since its early days and continued to grow if not faster at the time the Chinese Department at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa was established in 1922.  We have observed continued acquisitions of English language materials on Chinese language and culture in the library's accession files. 

According to  Nunn and Tsien's research on East Asian resources in American libraries, the University of Hawaii started to collect East Asian language materials in 1925. In 1930, a special room was set aside to house the growing oriental collection. By the end of 1932, this room was completely full. After the construction of the library addition in 1936, the Oriental Institute occupied a large part of the second floor of the new wing with a presentation of 15,000 books from Japan, China, and India. The collection was estimated to be the sixth largest among American college libraries at that time. 

Oriental Institute, 1936-1940

In 1935, the establishment of the Oriental Institute was approved by the Regents and Dr. Gregg M. Sinclair became the first director of the Oriental Institute.

The missions of the Institute were: “(a) to train students in the languages and cultures of the peoples of the Orient; (b) to bring to a knowledge of the Occident the great beauties and excellencies of many phases of life and civilization in Japan, China, and India.” (Oriental Institute Journal, January 1937)

The Oriental Institute Library (夏大東方學院圖書館) was established at the same time and played an important role in supporting oriental studies as stated by Sinclair:

"Eventually the Library will be our chief source of strength. With an excellent library we may attract scholars of the first rank."

—Sinclair, The Oriental Institute (Honolulu, University of Hawaii), 1935

Formation of the core of the China collection

Rapid growth of the China Collection

By July 1938, the library had ordered another 5,000 volumes of Chinese books from Beijing to support the Chinese curriculum on the campus. From Dr. Taam's 1939 library report to Sinclair (see image below), newly acquired materials for the China Collection were carefully selected by teaching faculty at the time, including renowned scholars Dr. Shao-chang Lee 李紹昌, Dr. Shou-yi Chen 陳受頤, Dr. Wing-tsit Chan 陳榮捷, and Dr. Yuan Ren Chao 趙元任. Dr. Taam checked the library's books against Professor Charles S. Gardner's Union List of Selected Western Books on China, and found the library hold over 200 titles among 303 listed. Up to May 1940,  Chinese collection contained 27,669 stitched volumes (rebound to 7428 volumes).

Prominent acquisitions

The China collection at UH became an outstanding collection in America at the time not only by its collection size, but more importantly by its comprehensiveness and research value in support of teaching and learning of Chinese language, literature, history and philosophy, religion, art, etc. The China Collection had acquired many prominent titles during this period. 

Here are some examples :

•  Chinese classical texts  previously collected by famous Chinese scholars and book collectors.

• 纂组英华 Tapestries and embroideries of the Sung, Yuan and Ming dynasties published in 1934

• 中國地方志綜錄 : A union catalog of Chinese local history published in 1935, donated by Dr. Alfred Kaiming Chiu (裘開明, Kaiming Qiu)

• The Chinese book collection of the famous Sinologist, Herbert A. Giles.

Although the development of international studies at Hawaii was sluggish after the war, the library was able to  maintain "extensive collections of Chinese and Japanese works and a growing collection of valuable books and periodicals about Hawaii make the University of Hawaii an excellent place to study international relations with emphasis in the Pacific area." (session "Library," UH General catalogues, 1947/1948-1951/1952) 

During the Christmas vacation of 1955,  the Library, including the Oriental Library collections, moved into its new building, the Gregg M. Sinclair Library, and welcomed faculty and students on the first day of the second semester of academic year of 1955. 

As of June 1957, the Chinese language collection increased to 50,000+ Chinese stitched volumes. In the following years , as a result of the boom of Hawaii economy, UH's academic programs were greatly expanded, among which was a resurgence in international studies. The library's areas of concentration corresponded to the  university's particular strengths in Asia. Along with other collections in the Oriental Library, the Chinese language Collection were boosted by the support needs of the federally funded East West Center,  which was established by the United States Congress in 1960 and located on the grounds of the University of Hawai`i. In fiscal year 1961-1962 alone, with expended fund for acquisition, Chinese monographs were increased from 53,978  volumes to 64,760 volumes and the number of microfilm reels were doubled. 

East West Center, 1962-1970

In 1962, the East West Center absorbed, with the University’s agreement,  the Chinese, Japanese and Korean books (about 80,000 volumes) of the Oriental Collection, as well as all Asian books purchased with Center funds, to create the Research Collections, which was established as a program of the East West Center's Institute of Advanced Projects. 

Later the library name was changed to the East West Center Library. The scope of the Library was widened by include more areas, such as the Pacific Islands. The objective of the EWC Library was to support the programs of the entire Center either through its own book resources or through cooperative arrangements with other research collections. In a short period of time, it grew to be one of the outstanding libraries in the United States on Asia because of its special commitment to the Asian field. 

In 1970, the East-West Center library collections, including the China Collection, returned to Hamilton Library and named the Asia Collection Department till today.

The image below was from a title page with three library property stamps: "University of Hawaii Library," "Research Collections, Institute of Advanced Projects, East-West Center 1962-1963," ”East West Center Library," a record of changes and transfers of some materials held in the Hamilton Library today.

During these years the library continued to receive books from Mainland China largely through Hong Kong with a small amounts directly from Beijing.  Acquisitions from Taiwan were greatly improved by a book buying and reprinting office in Taipei under the sponsorship of the Association for Asian Studies with funds granted by the Council on Library Resources, Incorporated. 

Another important aspect of acquisitions is through gift and exchange programs. Many exchange arrangements with prestigious Chinese institutions and organizations, such as National Library of Peking, University of Hong Kong, Academia Sinica, and National Central Library, were initiated for the development of the China Collection, among which the exchange program with the National Central Library continues to this day and active exchange program with the National Library of Peking were conducted during the Cultural Revolution period (1966-1976). 

With sufficient funding and adequate staffing, China Collection extended its scope to all subject areas about China and paid more attention to resources on modern and contemporary China. Notable acquisitions include more than one thousand reels of microfilm issued by the Union Research Institute, most of which were clippings of newspapers and periodicals on the politics, military affairs, education, economy, and social conditions of the People's Republic of China between 1949 and 1962, 中國近代史資料彙編 (Primary sources on Chinese modern history series) compiled by 中央研究院近代史研究所 (Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica) and a reprint edition of a rare title 中外新聞七日錄 (Chinese and foreign weekly news, one of the earliest Chinese newspaper published during the reign of Tongzhi 同治, 1865-1868). As of June 30, 1970, the Library held 81,224 volumes of Chinese language materials, ranked the fifteenth among fifty-seven East Asian collections in American libraries.