Sang Ye Collection

The Sang Ye Collection contains around 186 Chinese newspapers and serials, mostly published from 1949 to 1984. There is also a small number of government documents of the period from 1969 to 1977, monographs, pamphlets, mimeographed works, and some works published during the Japanese occupation of China.

Asia Chinese-Australians Local history

Key items in the collection

Highlights from this collection demonstrate its historical significance and variety.

The bulk of the Sang Ye Collection consists of Chinese newspapers and serials, mostly published in the period from 1949 to 1984. There are issues of 39 major newspapers, 5 local newspapers and 142 serials. The titles include:

Zhejiang ribao (Zhejiang Daily)
Jie fang jun bao (People’s Liberation Army Daily)
Jie fang ri bao (Liberation Daily)
Heilongjiang ri bao (Heilongjiang Daily
Hebei ri bao (Hebei Daily)
Hubei ri bao (Hubei Daily)
Guang ming ri bao (Guang Ming Daily)
Nei Menggu ri bao (Inner Mongolia Daily)
Beijing ri bao (Beijing Daily)
Shanxi ri bao (Shanxi Daily)
Da gong bao (Da Gong Daily)
Wen hui bao (Wen Hui Daily).

The collection also contains a small number of government documents of the period 1969 to 1977, monographs, pamphlets, mimeographed works, and some works published during the Japanese occupation of China.

In addition, there are 3 maps, published in Beijing from 1958 to 1962, of:

Africa
Japan
the United States.

About Sang Ye

Sang Ye (born 1955), whose original name was Shen Dajun, was born in Beijing and grew up during China’s Cultural Revolution.

Education

He was educated at Qinghua University High School and then became an apprentice at an electrical engineering plant.

After the Cultural Revolution ended, he missed university entry and did a short-term course at Peking Normal University in 1978.

Journalism

By 1980 he was a freelance journalist contributing to Hong Kong and overseas' Chinese newspapers.

In 1984 he collaborated with the novelist Zhang Xinxin on a long series of interviews about contemporary China, which were published in book form entitled Chinese Lives: An Oral History of Contemporary China.

Australia

In 1987 he was invited by the Australia Council to visit Australia.

Following the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, he and his family were evacuated to Australia. He now lives in Brisbane.

Collecting

When Sang Ye returned to Beijing in 1988, he became preoccupied with collecting Cultural Revolution materials. Chinese institutions were clearing out their files and he was able to salvage entire archives. He acquired 700 or more versions of the Little Red Book, rare monographs, posters, recordings and local and provincial newspapers.

Background to the collection

The Sang Ye Collection, which represents only part of the collection originally assembled in China, was purchased by the Library from Sang Ye in 1990.

The books, pamphlets and newspapers have been integrated in the Chinese Collection in the Asian Collections. They have been catalogued individually. The 3 maps are held in the Maps Collection. They have also been catalogued individually – the call numbers have the prefix 'MAP OC'.

This guide was prepared using this reference: