The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library wishes to express our greatest gratitude and deepest appreciation to Professor Rulan Chao Pian (1922-2013) for generously donating her entire collection of research, fieldwork, and teaching materials to the Library. In the initial donation agreement in 2006, she wrote, “hopefully my donation would also facilitate donation of similar kinds, thereby creating an open and comprehensive collection on Chinese music and related arts.” The well wishes of Professor Pian came true, the CUHK Library has since received other extra-ordinary donations on music, amongst them the valuable donation from the Yam Pak Foundation on Cantonese opera. In 2014, thanks to the generosity of Dr. Canta Pian, daughter of Professor Pian, the CUHK Library was gifted with the remaining collection of Professor Pian’s personal papers and musical instruments, as well as the authorization to digitize and make available resources and works created by Professor Pian for open access.
Professor Rulan Chao Pian was Emeritus Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and of Music at Harvard University. As cited by The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians (Online), "Pian travelled to China regularly, bringing the latest Western ideas and publications there, and returning to America with a wealth of fieldwork data and audio-visual recordings, materials that preserve and illustrate Chinese music to American audiences." Professor Pian was an inquisitive field-worker, she established her collection over a half century. Started in the 1960s, she regularly visited East Asian countries not only to collect books, musical instruments, and tapes, but also to record performances, events and interviews, carrying bulky recorders and cameras.
Professor Pian's collection is one of the most valuable collections on Chinese Music in the world. The greatest part of the collection consists of photographs, rare books, and monographs, ranging from the disciplines of ethnomusicology, Western musicology, Chinese languages and literatures to Chinese music, East-Asian music, and World music. The collection of audio-visual materials comprises commercial and non-commercial recordings of Peking Opera, revolutionary model opera, Chinese narrative music, East-Asian music, and Western music. The donated materials also includes Professor Pian's teaching materials at Harvard University, open-reel recorders and video machines purchased and preserved by Professor Pian which were the latest and advanced models in the old days, and some musical instruments collected by Professor Pian and used in her teachings.
The Rulan Chao Pian Collection captures the social, cultural and political lives of the time, and constitutes an invaluable reference source for musicologists, scholars, researchers, as well as performers. In order to share the resources with the wider community, the Library began to digitize high priority items as early as 2007, and in 2015, with the support from the Theodore H.H. Pian and Rulan Chao Pian Memorial Fund and the University, the Library embarked on one of the largest digitization project aiming to preserve and make available a large majority of the Rulan Chao Pian Collection on the Library’s CUHK Digital Repository.
The launching of this digital collection represents the concerted effort of many, including students of Professor Pian, colleagues from Music Department and the Library. It is with great honour the CUHK Library opens this immense treasure of Professor Rulan Chao Pian for students and scholars around the world. Inspired by the loving, joyful and inquisitive personality of Professor Pian, it has been a most rewarding experience for the project team, and we would like to give our special thanks to Dr. Canta Pian and her family, Professor Bell Yung, Professor Yu Siu Wah, and Professor Samuel Wu for their support and encouragement all along, and to Mrs. Rita Wong, the former Deputy Librarian of CUHK Library and Ms. Kwan Yin-Yee, alumnus of Music Department, CUHK for their immeasurable contribution in this meaningful donation.
The CUHK Library
October 8, 2019
In addition to this CUHK Digital Repository platform, please visit the Rulan Chao Pian Collection on ArchiveSpace for full catalogue of manuscripts, teaching notes, photos, and instruments etc., and the LibrarySearch for complete list of donated books and journals.
