Tag: Norman Gan-chao and Anne Lee Yao Papers

This Wednesday, I presented on the Yao Family Papers at the Founders Room. When I arrived in front of the room, I immediately noticed a familiar face. It was none other than Norman Yao’s son, the donor of the collection, Peter Yao. I have seen so many photos of him in the past year, as a child or a young adult. Although he certainly had aged, the way he looked did not change very much and was highly recognizable. I exchanged a few pleasant words for him, and felt really honored that he came to my presentation. Many librarians attended the presentation, and I was pleasantly surprised to find my academic advisor there too. 

In the presentation, I talked about the history of the Yao family, the contents of the collection, the themes of Yao’s photography, and my favorite items in the collection. The other two fellows presented on a LA composer and the novelist Irving Wallace. I really enjoyed the event. 

As I am studying abroad next semester, this week might be my last week working for CCEPS. The past year had been really fun and I learned a great deal in the process. As an aspiring historian, when I first saw primary sources such as the collection, I was inclined to invent stories for the items. However, I gradually learned that as an archivist, I had to assume the innocence of the items, and let future researchers give them meanings. This “post-modern” mentality had been refreshing in the sense that metanarratives were forbidden and fragments were celebrated. 

Hope you have a fruitful final week! 

Marcus

Here’s an auspicious Cantonese junk boat for your good luck. 

This week, I mainly worked on the presentation that I will be giving next Wednesday. Based on my knowledge of the collection, in the presentation, I am going to talk about the Yao family’s history of education, work, and migration. Additionally, I will show some of my favorite photographs from the collection, including photos of Hong Kong, the Claremont Colleges, and art works. Finally, I plan on talking about one object that interested me the most: a 1938 graduation book from University of Shanghai, where both Norman and Anne Yao attended. 

The book is very fascinating for me on many levels. The bloody Battle of Shanghai was fought a year before the book was published, and the Japanese captured the city. University of Shanghai had to relocate to the International Settlement, but the university’s president was assassinated by the Japanese. In the year book, in which students reacted differently to the war. As for Norman, he was upset because he lost his collection of photographs in the war. 

The presentation is going to be at Honnold/Mudd Library’s Founders Room at 1:00 on Wednesday, December 12. I am presenting along with other two CCEPS students. Please come to our presentations if you have time.

See you then! 

Marcus

This week, I finished processing the 35mm slides in the collection. Perhaps because the 35mm slide technology was made available to the general public later than film negatives, most of the slides were from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Since Norman Yao no longer worked for the Claremont Colleges and was likely retired, most of the slides were about their family life and their travels around the world. 

The Yao family had interesting choices of travel destinations. They visited not only their native China after the country opened its gate to the world, but also New Zealand because they had relatives living there. Besides, as a religious person, Yao took a large number of photos of churches and Christian gatherings when he visited Southeast Asia. Furthermore, the family also visited Israel in 1983. Additionally, they also visited Europe and famous cities across the United States. 

I noticed that the collection only included objects up until the early 1980s, around the time of Norman Yao’s death. Thus, I suspect that these objects were stored away upon the passing of the family patriarch. 

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This week I finished processing the vast majority of the photographs in the collection and begun processing the 35mm slides in the collection. Since I am simply taking 35mm slides out of their boxes and slide trays and placing them into protective plastic sleeves, the process was in fact quite therapeutic. 

The 35mm slides mostly recorded the travels and daily lives of the Yao family in the early and mid-1980s. They travelled rather extensively to China, Europe, Israel, and New Zealand. Among the 35mm slides, I came across a few taken on Yao family’s Thanksgiving party. 

Happy Thanksgiving and please enjoy the photos! 

Marcus

Cutting the Turkey

Having a Food Baby

Strike a Pose

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For the past few weeks, I have almost finished processing the photos in the Yao Family Collection. The next step is to process the 35mm slides, placing them into plastic protection sheets. 

Even though most of the photos are in black and white, I could not help but to appreciate Norman Yao’s sympathy for his photographed subjects and his great artistic sensibilities, especially given that he took up photography as a hobby in college and had never received any formal training in art schools. One could notice his early passion for photography in his college graduation book, in which he described the most painful thing that happened to him during college had been that he lost a part of his photo collection in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Yao worked as a photographer for nearly two decades in Hong Kong for US Information Service and in Claremont for the Claremont Colleges. Here are some of my favorite photos by Yao, enjoy! 

                                                   Pomona Theater Production

Behind the Bleachers

Woman by the Window

Have a nice week! 

Marcus

Hello again! It’s me Marcus! This Friday, I was very excited to return to working on the Yao Family Papers at CCEPS. I genuinely enjoy going through documents, photographs, and personal letters and gradually formulating increasingly wholistic pictures of members of the Yao family in my mind. 

This week, I processed a series of the Yao family’s official documents that came in a black leather briefcase. These documents include Norman’s University of Shanghai diploma from 1936, Anne’s love letter to Norman from 1943, their British Hong Kong ID cards from 1950s, US immigration documents in 1956, naturalization documents in the early 1960s, and even Norman’s certificate of death in the 1980s. They marked not only the change in their legal status, but also told the personal stories of the immigrant family. 

Finishing processing this leather briefcase marks the completion of my work on the first half of the Yao Family Papers with the exception of the photo negatives, which require special processing actions. I am very excited to bring the second half of the collection from the Asian Library to the CCEPS room and continue my exploration of Yao family’s stories! 

Have a nice week! 

Marcus