This transcript was exported on Feb 07, 2020 - view latest version here. Xiaofei Tian: Good afternoon everyone. I'm Tian Xiaofei. I'm professor of Chinese Literature at Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard. It is my honor and pleasure to chair this panel archival and private collection this afternoon. And before I introduce our panelists, I would like to just very briefly introduce the background of this panel. Xiaofei Tian: So the background of the panel is a special exhibition which is being held upstairs, and we welcome everybody to go upstairs after the panel to take a look at the exhibition. So this exhibition is of a selection of treasured items from the collection of The Za Library, Zashuguan, and from Harvard- YenQing Library. So my colleague Wilt Idema, and I worked with the librarians of The Za Library and Harvard-YenQing library in making these selections, and the support of the Fairbank Center made the exhibition possible. Xiaofei Tian: So what is Zashuguan. You'll hear all about it from the director of Zashuguan very shortly. But let me just say that it is the biggest privately owned library in mainland China that is open to public. So the library is primarily built upon the private collection of the man who launched Kongfuzi Jiushu Wang, which is believed it will be the world's largest online platform for the circulation of used books, old books, jiushu. Xiaofei Tian: So The Za Library was founded in 2015 with Mr Gao Xiaosong a very well known cultural figure serving as it's director. So it was Mr Gao Xiaosong who gave the library its name Za, a word that means miscellaneous multifarious, mixed or simply put eclectic. So the name I think really very well captures the spirit of this unique library, because its extensive collection has a very wide arrange of pre-modern to modern materials in both printed and manual script media. Xiaofei Tian: So there are, as you will see from the exhibition upstairs, there are Tang manuscript copies, song printed editions, Liao and Xixia printed sutras in Chinese and Tangut. Ming and Qing clan lineages and local gazetteers, which you will hear being discussed by Professor Michael Szonyi shortly. There are autographs by prominent late Qing and early Republican personages, and a very large trove of popular materials from the late nineteenth through early twentieth century. And the popular material found in this last category, these were not traditionally widely sought by private collectors or public libraries. Xiaofei Tian: So these materials are really... To me, I think is really one of the major highlights of The Za Library, they're juxtaposed with the writings of the highest political and cultural elite of the day. So these materials from the lower strata of the literate society gave us a very good sense of the multifariousness Za of social life in China during a period of turmoil and change. Xiaofei Tian: So along with choice selection of the other material, the collection of the popular materials is featured most prominently in this exhibition, and the Harvard librarians have also made available a small selection from the very vast collection of the Harvard-Yenching Library as accompaniment and a Archival and Private Collection in Modern China (Completed 01/18/20) Page 1 of 22 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Feb 07, 2020 - view latest version here. compliment of The Za library materials on display. So the joint exhibition is designed to give the audience a taste. Just a small taste of these two really excellent library collections. Xiaofei Tian: They also will offer a glimpse into the diverse social reality in Chinese history and they prompt us to reflect on the nature and the significance of archival and private collection in modern China. And that is the theme of this panel today. So we have on our panel four speakers today. We have Mr Gao Xiaosong himself and who really needs no introduction to the people in this room. Xiaofei Tian: His many accomplishments include being the Director of The Zashuguan, and who has also opened several libraries throughout China. And that's really a great enterprise and a great thing to do. And we have Riley Brett-Roche, PhD candidate in history from Stanford University. And Riley spent the last year in China as a Mellon International Dissertation Research Fellow working on a dissertation and I believe a future book on modern China's archives. Xiaofei Tian: And we have Katherine Alexander who teaches Chinese Literature at University of Colorado, and a scholar of Baojuan. So she will share her insights about Baojuan and the popular material, the Baojuan is particularly kind of well featured in the exhibition and in the collection of the Zashuguan. Xiaofei Tian: And last but not least, we have professor Michael Szonyi who is Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese history, and the director of Fairbank center for Chinese Studies at Harvard. So I want to just take the opportunity thank Michael, and the Fairbank Center as well as The Za Library and the Harvard-YenQing Library for their support of this project. And I want to give a special note of thanks to the librarians Mr. Ma Xiao-he, Ms. Annie Wang, and Ms. Sharon Yang, and also Ms. Xiao Ge From the Zashuguan, and also to the very talented staff at the Fairbank Center, Mark Grady and James Evans. So thank you very much for all your help to make this event possible. So now I want to turn it over to our panelists. So first let us welcome Mr. Gao Xiaosong the Zashuguan guanzhang. Gao Xiaosong: Thank you Xiaofei. Thank you Michael. Thank you everybody. Xiaofei already said 90% of my lines, so almost everything. Where's the remote control? Okay. Actually last year I did a pretty long presentation of Zashuguan in East Asia Language and civilization Department, so I don't want to repeat the whole thing. It's a very long stuff. 50 pages of this PPT. Gao Xiaosong: So today I just want to change the angle from content side to the resource talking about kongfuzi.com First I'd love to read this in Chinese. I can't translate this to English. [Foreign language 00:08:15] C to C market place [foreign language 00:10:28] consumer to consumer. [Foreign language 00:10:29] B to C [foreign language 00:10:38] Amazon [foreign language 00:10:39] C to C [foreign language 00:10:46] market place [foreign language 00:10:52] sponsor [foreign language 00:10:53] The GMV. Gao Xiaosong: Archival and Private Collection in Modern China (Completed 01/18/20) Page 2 of 22 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Feb 07, 2020 - view latest version here. Online GMV is kind of like 800 Million Airbnb [foreign language 00:10:55] Kong Fuzi can charge like 1.5% of every transaction. [Foreign language 00:11:55] This one dominant market in China cover like more than 90% of the whole [foreign language 00:12:34] Transaction fee- [foreign language 00:12:56] Transaction fee- [foreign language 00:13:05] Okay. You are the number one dominant market, number one in this field. [Foreign language 00:14:21] We don't any profit. [Foreign language 00:14:28] Riley: Thank you. Gao Xiaosong: This is my water. Riley: Thank you. Am I going in the right... Is there a way to skip? Gao Xiaosong: I think you will have to. Xiaofei Tian: I think you will have to open this one. Sorry. Riley: No it's alright. I'm not very good at this either, so how do we- Gao Xiaosong: No don't touch that screen. Riley: Don't touch... Okay. Gao Xiaosong: That's the control panel. Riley: I guess while we deal with this, I would like to say thank you. I spent the past year in Beijing doing dissertation research. And so I was able go to the Zashuguan a couple of times. In fact, I spent many days there. Riley: And actually my sister came to visit me during the spring festival time, and she doesn't speak any Chinese, but she's a kindergarten teacher and we really enjoyed looking through some of the old comic books that you've collected. So it is a place that appeals to everyone. Archival and Private Collection in Modern China (Completed 01/18/20) Page 3 of 22 Transcript by Rev.com This transcript was exported on Feb 07, 2020 - view latest version here. Gao Xiaosong: Thank you. Riley: Okay. All right. I'm delighted to be here to discuss The Za Library, the most pleasant sun-filled research center I worked in during my year of dissertation research. To contextualize the history of The Za Library, I offer an overview of a century of private collecting by focusing on three periods of turmoil in Beijing that reshaped the market and rare books and the history that we know today. The fall of the Qing empire, the Japanese occupation, and the cultural revolution. Here, private library is considered a collection of books... I'm sorry. Am I not loud enough? Gao Xiaosong: Yeah. Thank you. Riley: Okay. Here, private libraries considered a collection of books, historical materials and artifacts taking into account the social, political personal practices and fluctuating market conditions that led to this unique grouping. The study of private libraries cannot be divorced from the shifting role of the intellectual, but it should also be linked with the paper recyclers, grave diggers and clerks who found treasure in the trash.