“Old China Hands” Oral History Collection

When somewhat facetiously looking up the term “old China hand” for the last article, I stumbled across a precious repository of oral histories and related items hosted at California State University’s Digital Library. You can read information about it here and here, and click through below to see them.

The transcript I read through extended from 1981 to 2012 and told the tale of Tess Johnston. It was intriguing to hear how she became a contributor to historical records of architecture, even though the times prohibited her from majoring it in at UVA. She saw Shanghai through decades of change and manages to encapsulate its unique facades from years of first-hand experience.

I look forward to reading or listening through more, and highly recommend that those interested in a catalogue of a changing China peruse the invaluable entries.