In September 2024 the Humanities Research Center launched its pilot partnership program with the Royal Asiatic Society, China (RAS). Under the supervision of DKU Associate Dean James Miller and DKU Archivist Ryder Kouba, students William Tran (DKU’28) and Elliot Aung (DKU’28) undertook the work of digitizing the library’s archives and catalog respectively.
Background
The RAS Library was founded in 1868 with the purchase of Alexander Wylie’s collection of 718 books on “various subjects related to China.” Over the next seventy years it grew to become one of the most complete collections of English language books on Asia in the world.
By 1937 it contained over 30,000 books and was housed on the third floor of the RAS building on Museum Road near the Bund (now the Rockbund Art Museum on Huqiu Road). During the late 1930s with thousands of refugees flooding into Shanghai, it was a tranquil haven for the residents of the International Settlement. It was recorded that over 6000 people would visit the library each month.
The RAS Library survived the Japanese occupation and the Civil War, but was forced to close its doors in 1951. Most of its original collection now resides at the Xujiahui Library (The Bibliotheca Zi-ka-wei).
The Royal Asiatic Society, China was refounded as a community-based organization in 2007, and has been rebuilding its collection ever since. Like the original RAS Library, its focus is on material related to China, and contains some 4,000 books and archival materials, many of which are old and not available elsewhere. Approximately ten percent of the collection was published prior to 1945; the oldest book was published in 1857.
Digitization Project
The digitization project consisted of two elements. The first was the digitization of the library’s catalog, using the open source Koha platform. DKU freshman Elliot Aung undertook the installation of the webserver, software, and the data migration, and the building of a new website where anyone can search the catalog and learn more about the library.
Secondly, DKU freshman William Tran has begun the process of digitizing the RAS archives. These include rare journals from the pre-liberation period, as well as the personal archive of Tess Johnston, a US citizen who collected a wide range of material related to Shanghai’s history, architecture, and expatriate life. Kouba noted:
As a newcomer to China, the Johnston collection provided a great overview of the history of Westerners in Shanghai through her collection of various publications. More interestingly for me was the changes in how historic architecture was perceived and preserved over time here, which Johnston thoroughly documented in her role as the “Patron Saint” of Shanghai architectural preservation.
The Johnston archives were transported box by box from Shanghai to Kunshan, where Tran set about scanning them in the DKU library archive room. Altogether 7158 pages of material have been digitized so far, with topics varying from architecture, history, immigrant and expat communities to dogs in Shanghai’s parks. Digitization, however, it not so simple as putting an object under a scanner. Tran said:
The digitization process involved many challenges from rust imprinted onto the materials or newspaper clippings that were so fragile a touch can make them disintegrate. Lighting was also a challenge, and sometimes I had to completely turn off the lighting in the archive room and work in the dark.
Kouba, Tran and Miller presented this work on April 25, 2025 at the Symposium on Heritage in the Digital Age at NYU Shanghai, together with Julie Chun, an art historian and member of the RAS council.
Future Research
Much, however, remains to be done. The archives have finally been uploaded to the RAS China library website. A detailed finding guide needs to be written. And then the process of analyzing the archive in detail can begin, which should be a great research project for a future DKU humanities major. Those who are interested in working with the archive are invited to contact Professor Miller.
