The Archives of the Archdiocese of Canton (Guangzhou), China

The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at the University of San Francisco is very pleased to announce that the newly digitized archives of the former Catholic Archdiocese of Canton will become available to researchers beginning in summer 2011. Containing approximately 15,000 items (30 linear feet) of documents, plans, maps, correspondence, deeds, petitions, decree’s and artifacts, the Archives cover the period from 1851 to 1949, which nearly exactly coincides with the “hundred years of shame” (百年國恥 bainian guochi), from the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing through the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 and the end of Catholic missionary work. Diocesan and parish records from this period and locale are extremely rare. The Canton Archives thus provide a unique resource on the Chinese Church during a turbulent period in modern Chinese history.