Our summer experience working together on the Chinese language collections at the Hoover Institution Archives during the summer of 2017 has been an extremely educational and fulfilling one. Although we come from different backgrounds, we were able to work together to cohesively and efficiently organize, arrange, and describe archival materials that document various stages of China’s history. Rita Wang is a Taiwanese-American who holds a bachelor’s degree in Technology and Information Management and is working towards a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science, with a concentration in archival practices. Shang Li is an international student from China who holds a bachelor’s degree in History and Government and is working towards a Master’s degree in Social Work with a concentration in social policy. Our language competencies vary with regards to traditional and simplified Chinese characters and provided us with the skills to survey and describe a wider range of Chinese language materials.
Our work on the Julia Tung collection exemplifies our collaborative efforts, as working on this has allowed us us to bring both archivist and historian perspectives to the table. Furthermore, the collection covers topics from the Tiananmen Square Protests to Asian American communities in the United States and illustrates creator, Julia Tung’s, knowledge of world politics. The original arrangement of this collection also put us in awe, as the Julia Tung collection showed her personality and perhaps indirectly reflected her long time service at the East Asian Library of Stanford University through her neat and professional arrangement. Unlike many other scattered collections, we decided to maintain the original order as well as the original titles. By doing so, we hope that researchers would understand Julia Tung as a person when using her materials. In addition to the various audiovisual materials, we would also like to highlight the calligraphy included in this collection. We are confident that calligraphers, scholars, and collectors would be ecstatic seeing the couplet poems written by Asian American individuals and organizations in calligraphy, which reflect their heritage and culture.
