Poon, Ming Sun 潘銘燊 (Pan, Mingshen), 1985-2001, undated

The majority of the Tse-tsung Chow Papers is made up of correspondence, manuscripts and photocopies of articles and clippings from newspapers and journals. Some of the folder titles are bilingual as the archivist retains the original Chinese folder titles assigned by Prof. Chow.

Being a renowned scholar, Prof. Chow received lots of manuscripts and published Articles (folders 1-1 through 3-1) from his friends and students for his review and comments. Most of these articles, which are reprints from journals, cover various subjects such as history, politics, languages and literature.

Prof. Chow’s father, Chow, Peng-chu周鵬翥 was an activist in the Chinese Revolution, 1911-1912 as well as a poet. Folders 7-1 through 7-4 contain Mr. Chow’s biographical information and manuscripts, copies of his poems and poetry books published in his honor.

Folders 7-5 through 8-1 in the Chow, Tse-tsung files contain ample biographical information on Prof. Chow. Articles of interviews (folder 8-4) and memoir (folder 8-5) collected from different journals and newspapers trace his achievements and professional scholarly activities as a scholar and poet. His academic work and cultural activities in the University of Wisconsin – Madison, as well as his role as an external examiner of postgraduate students’ dissertations and external assessor of faculty members being considered for promotion in other universities are well documented in folders 9-2 through 9-4.

Correspondence spanning from 1946 to 2006 in folders 11-2 through 22-5, 40-7 through 41-4, 44-9 through 58-8 includes copies and drafts of letters written by Prof. Chow as well as letters from Prof. Chow’s family, friends, students, admirers, and colleagues, as well as scholars, publishers and overseas universities. These letters document his collegial and personal relationships with them. Many of these letters are about personal matters such as study, work and family. A substantial portion of the correspondence is letters accompanied with manuscripts of Chinese poems and calligraphy as well as articles and clippings on literature, history and critics written by either Prof. Chow or his correspondents. Other correspondence includes invitation letters requesting Prof. Chow to be an external examiner and external assessor of overseas universities, to attend scholarly conferences or to publish his writings and poems.

Prof. Chow created separate correspondence files for some prominent correspondents. Among these correspondents are Madam Chiang Kai-shek, Bertran & Dora Russell, 謝扶雅Zia N. Z. (Hsieh Fuya), 劉殿爵Lau Din Cheuk, 柳無忌Liu Wuchi, 劉若愚James J. Y. Liu, 蔣彝Chiang Yee , 顧一樵Ku Y. H. (Gu Yiqiao), and 劉紹銘Joseph S. M. Lau. The majority of the correspondence (folders 12-4 through 22-5, 40-7 through 41-4 and 45-7 through 58-8), is arranged alphabetically by the last name of the sender or recipient other than Prof. Chow, and then chronologically. The English names of the correspondents in folder titles are taken from the letters or envelopes, otherwise they are romanized in Pinyin. The rest of the correspondence in folders 11-2 through 12-3 and 44-9 through 45-6 are arranged by categories of senders and topics.

Prof. Chow has written and published numerous articles and books on different subjects. The Book manuscripts (folders 3-6 through 5-4 and 43-1) and Chinese opera (folders 6-16 and 6-17) files contain his book manuscripts on Chinese medicine, poems and opera respectively. Folders 28-1 through 28-4 document critics, reviews and related papers on Prof. Chow’s highly acclaimed history book, The May Fourth Movement : Intellectual Revolution in Modern China. There were also different drafts and proofs of the Chinese translation of this master work in folders 28-6 through 29-5 and 61-1 through 61-5 in the files of The May Fourth Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China (Chinese edition)《五四運動史》.

Files in Essays (folders 23-1 through 26-5 and 59-1 and 60-3), Red Chamber Dream (folders 32-4 through 33-4) and May Fourth Movement (folders 27-1 through 27-6) include Prof. Chow’s many published and unpublished writings, drafts, manuscripts and notes related to his works on history, poetry, Chinese literature and classics, literary theory and critics, philosophy, May Fourth Movement in 1919 and Hong Lou Meng 《紅樓夢》 . These essays and articles, mostly in Chinese, document the scope of his scholarly writings and research work. In some folders there may be a mixture of Prof. Chow’s writings, correspondence, other writers’ works and collected clippings related to some particular subjects.

Folders 30-1 through 32-3 and 62-1 through 63-4 in the Poetry files document Prof. Chow’s profound interest and talents in writing different styles of Chinese poems. A poem written in the form of palindrome with some articles related to it in folder 31-2 and poems using homonyms in folder 31-3 are just a few examples of Prof. Chow’s works in poetry writing. Prof. Chow not only wrote poems to express his feelings and love for life and people, he has also written some poems dedicated to his dog Jiffy on its death (folder 31-7).

Prof. Chow had made immense efforts in his research work during his scholarly career. Folders 34-1 through 34-8 and 63-6 in the Research Projects files document some of his research proposals and research work from 1958 through 2002.

Before going to the United States for further study, Prof. Chow worked in the Nationalist Government of China. The Speech records file (folder 35-1) contains Chiang Kai-shek’s speeches recorded by Prof. Chow in 1946-1947.

Geographic coverage

China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, New Zealand, United States

Types of documents

Articles, books, calligraphy, clippings, correspondence, manuscripts, newsletters, newspapers, journal reprints.

Correspondents

A major portion of the correspondence consists of Chinese letters written to Prof. Chow by his students, friends, publishers and relatives. There are also English letters written by his colleagues and other universities related to Prof. Chow’s work activities.