The symposium “The Soong Family and the Development of Modern China,” cosponsored by the Hoover Institution Archives, the Shanghai City Government, and Fudan University, was held in Shanghai, China, between November 1 and 3, 2013. The event was attended by representatives from leading libraries and archives in East Asia and North America, including the Academia Historica of Taiwan, the Second Historical Archives of China (Nanjing), the Shanghai Municipal Archives, the Chongqing Municipal Archives, the Japanese Defense Ministry Archives, the Japanese Foreign Ministry Archives, the Toyo Bunko (Oriental Library) of Japan, the East Asian Library of Columbia University, the Academy of Sciences of Russia, and many other outstanding scholars from the United States, Britain, Canada, Russia, Japan, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Eric Wakin, director of the Hoover Library and Archives, delivered opening remarks detailing the history of the Hoover Institution, its collecting philosophy, and the joint archival and research projects between Hoover and Fudan based on Hoover’s historical treasures. Hsiao-ting Lin, a Hoover research fellow and curator of the East Asian Collection, presented his new research on how, by mining Hoover’s East Asian collection, modern China has learned to manage its external relations and how it was caught between idealism and pragmatism in handling foreign affairs. During their stay in Shanghai, the Hoover delegates were invited to tour the Shanghai Municipal Archives and the Shanghai Library, where they were cordially welcomed and greeted by leaders of the two institutions.
