Processing Plan

Hi everyone! 

I was on spring break last week so there were no blog posts. 

As I was drafting the processing plan for the Yao family papers, I was surprised by the freedom I was given in determining the arrangement method and potential research value of the collection. Because the materials in the Yao family papers varies vastly in their forms, ranging from official documents to film rolls, I decided to generally arrange the collection into series based on the format of the materials. 

Initially I was going to determine that the collection had medium potential research value because the events Norman Yao documented as a commercial photographer did not have an inherent connection between them. But after much hesitation, I determined that the collection has high research value because it reveals much about the local history of Claremont and tells a story of an immigrant family. Additionally, the collection would be accessible to the researchers because most of the documents in this collection are well preserved and can be dated, and certain parts of the collection are even systematically labeled.

I hope one day the Yao family papers can be available for researchers and benefit them in their research. 

Hope you have a good week! 

Marcus

Connecting with Claremont

Hi Everyone, 


I have been working as a CCEPS fellow for three weeks now, and I am done surveying the first half of the Yao family papers. Having examined so many Norman Yao’s photos of Claremont, I gradually developed a deeper sense of connection with the college town. When I ascended the stairs on the south side of the Honnold/Mudd Library, a black and white photo that Norman Yao took in the late 1960s flashed in my mind. Four students about my age were walking down the stairs, chatting; one was fixing her hair, while another student was staring north at Mt. Baldy. For a brief moment, I felt that had I waved at them, they would have waved back at me. In other instances, as I walked around Claremont and saw the places photographed by Norman, I felt like I was visiting places that I had seen in movies or read about in novels. But Claremont is not a distant and strange place, but the city where I reside. Yet, seeing the town through the lens of a camera and with a historical dimension prompted me to take a step back from my many frustrations with Claremont in my daily life to view myself as a part of its changing history and appreciate the many beauties of Claremont. 

Moving on, I will be processing the Yao family papers. Basically, I will draft a processing plan, rearrange the documents under different themes and evaluate their research value. 


Hope you have a good week! 

Marcus


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Claremont students during a protest

Claremont in the 1960s

Hi Everyone, 


This week, I continued to survey the Yao family collection and encountered a box full of negatives and 35 mm slides. Since Mr. Norman Yao took many photos for the Claremont Colleges and the Claremont Church, I am also discovering local history while going through his photos. In the 1960s, the Scripps College campus was decorated with Chinese Buddhist statues donated by Norwegian General Johan Munthe who emigrated to China in 1886. The fascination with the Orient was so deep that President of Scripps College Mark Curtis even tried on a Chinese imperial robe. 

The racial aspect of 1960s Claremont in this collection is also rather interesting as the vast majority of the people Norman photographed were Caucasians, and yet he was a person of color. This particular dynamic reminded me of the photos of the all-white parties that Norman took in Hong Kong. I wonder what psychological effect such racial dynamics could have had on Norman as well as the photographed subjects. Meanwhile, Norman’s camera also captured social changes in the 1960s, for instance, the first admission of Black students into Scripps College through Future Development Program of Negro Students. 


Hope you have a good week! 


Marcus


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Norman Yao reads “How to Use the Box Camera”

The Story of the Yao Family

Hi Everyone, 

I am very excited to be on board to work as a CCEPS fellow. This semester, I will be working on Claremont’s former mayor Mr. Peter Yao’s donation of photos and other family documents to The Claremont Colleges Library. First week on the job, I encountered many fascinating documents, including numerous personal letters and dozens of official documents issued by the Kuomintang, British Hong Kong and American government. From these documents I was able to reconstruct the story of the Yao family. Graduates of University of Shanghai, Peter Yao’s parents hailed from elite families in mainland China. But when the Communists won the civil war and confiscated their business, they fled to British Hong Kong where they worked for the US Information Service. Under the Refugee Relief Act of 1953, they came to the United States. Peter Yao’s father Norman Yao was a lifelong enthusiast of photography, and the photographs he had taken constitutes the majority of the documents I will be processing. 


Hope you have a good week! 

Marcus


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Norman Yao and his beloved Rolleiflex camera