This presentation by Barbara Hoster prepared for the 70th anniversary of the Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library of the University of California looks back at the sojourn of the Monumenta Serica Institute on the campus of UCLA from 1963 to 1972.
Presentation on the Monumenta Serica Institute and Its Library, with Special Consideration of the Stay at UCLA (1963–1972)
Anniversary Celebration “Bridging the Pacific for Seventy Years: The Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library, 1948–2018,” Los Angeles, Presentation Session, Dec. 4, 2018
The presentation offers an overview of the history of the Monumenta Serica Institute, from the founding of its Sinological journal Monumenta Serica in Beijing in 1935, to its relocation to Japan in the 1950s and its sojourn on the campus of UCLA from 1963 to 1972, after which the Institute moved to its present location at Sankt Augustin, Germany. Special emphasis is laid on the role of Professor Richard C. Rudolph in inviting the Monumenta Serica Institute to Los Angeles, the relationship between UCLA and the Institute, the development of the Institute’s library and the introduction of its main actors at the time, the Divine Word Missionaries and Sinologists Heinrich Busch (1912–2002) and Gerhard Schreiber (1911–1972).