Collections : [C.V. Starr East Asian Library]

Original books, pamphlets, journals, magazines, manuscripts, and ephemera produced, published and collected by Abe Kōbō. Also includes photocopied newspaper, magazine, and journal articles as well as book excerpts from Abe Kōbō's study.

The images in this collection were assembled by Anne S. Goodrich (1895–2005) in 1931, when as a Christian missionary in Peking she became interested in local folk religious practices. She studied the paper gods in this collection for much of her life. After publishing her research conclusions in 1991, she donated these prints to the C. V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University.

The Chinese Diary Collection contains 850 volumes of hardbound and softbound diaries, dating from 1930s to 1980s. Some volumes are filled with writing from cover to cover; some, partially filled; and some, with brief inscriptions. It includes 81 volumes by different individuals of Republican Period (1912-1949) and 95 small volumes penned by an engineer, with scientific data and personal contents. The contents recorded in the dairies are significant, for instance, a set of 20 work diaries by a mid-rank public security cadre member during and after the Cultural Revolution offers detailed history of public security operations for two decades. A set of 10 work diaries by an officer working in a ministry of the State Council in the 1980s documented the political and daily lives before and after the Tiananmen Massacre in association with the students' pro-democracy movement.

The Coins and Paper Currency of Tibet collection of the C.V. Starr East Asian Library at Columbia University comprises a small representative sample of historical coinage and paper currency circulating in Tibet and contiguous areas in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The core items in this collection originally belonged to the Kyaping family, who lived in the heart of Lhasa until the final occupation by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) in 1959. It is noteworthy that the family's holdings included coins minted in Sichuan as well as Nepal, as well as paper currency printed in Tibet. The bulk of the collection was probably issued from approximately 1870 through 1940.

The Collection of China's spring 1989 democracy movement (六四前后中国民主运动资料汇集) documents the legacy of the democracy movement in China during 1989 as well as events leading up to the Tiananmen Square Incident and its aftermath, dating from 1988 to 1997, and with the bulk of the materials dating from 1989 to 1990. The collection holds the originals and the photocopies of over 300 ephemeral posters, leaflet/handbills, newsletters, open letters, and petitions created and distributed in 1989, including those issued by the Peking Workers Autonomous Association (北京工人自治联合会), student groups from various universities, the "Hunger Strike Newsletter" and other unofficial news bulletins, intellectuals' petitions to the government, cartoons, and poetry. The collection also comprises over 200 photographs depicting demonstration banners, big character posters, petitions and letters to the leaders. The collection also contains 15 eye-witness reports by Asians and Westerners, reports of human rights organizations, as well as books, miscellaneous news magazine articles and newspaper clippings. Related materials in the collection also include Spring 1989 issues of the banned intellectuals' journal "Eastern Record"; 147 slides of work shown at the Peking National Gallery's avant-garde exhibition; and a video tape of interviews with artists and performance art at the February 5, 1989 opening of that exhibition. Other items are several VHS, audiocassettes, floppy disks, fragments of wall posters, a T-shirt, and commemorative envelopes. A large fabric banner prepared by Chinese students at the University of Michigan which was sent to Peking where it was displayed at Tiananmen Square in May 1989 and later returned to the U.S., is also included in the collection.

The Ephemera collection on Chinese science, technology, law, and society (中国科技法律社会汇集) contains over 800 items published in China, dating from circa 1906 to 2010, with its bulk dating from 1931 to 1981. Materials include pamphlets, handbooks, picture books, posters, lantern slides, literacy flash cards, etc. The subject areas of the materials include science, technology, agriculture, personal hygiene, economy, culture, law, society, and politics, etc. The collection also includes works that reflected social, political, industrial transformation in China.

This Japanese photograph and postcard collection is composed of five different groups: photographs and postcards collected by Samuel McCune Lindsay (Series 1); photographs and postcards collected by J. W. T. Mason (Series 2); photographs donated by Katharine Becke (Series 3); Japanese Subjugation of Rehe Sheng (China) "Public Relations Photographs" (Series 4); and other postcards and photographs (Series 5). The majority of items were created and/or collected during the 1930s in Japan; however, the collection includes items created throughout the twentieth century as well as originating in neighboring countries such as China and Korea.

This collection contains correspondence, manuscripts, notes, articles, books, ephemera, postcards and black-and-white photographs. Correspondence in Series 1 includes letters from Henri Bergson, Benedetto Croce, F. C. S. Schiller, Arthur Waley and Kimura Hideo, dated 1912-1938. Manuscripts in Series 2 include drafts of Mason's published and unpublished works, as well as letters, contracts, advertisements and notes related to his publications and lectures. Subject files in Series 3 include notes written by Mason and quotes and articles collected by him on various topics in Eastern religions and philosophies. This series also includes miscellaneous notes, "Obras Publicadas," a list of Mason's publications. Photographs in Series 5 and postcards in Series 6 were taken or collected during Mason's stay in Japan in the 1930s (see Related Materials).

The Lama Anagarika Govinda Papers contain biographical materials, correspondence, articles and book publications, photos and interviews related to Lama Govinda. These were collected primarily by biographer Ken Winkler. The letters include correspondence written to and by Lama Govinda, as well as letters to the biographer by personal friends and certain institutions who offer details regarding the teacher's life.

This collection contains letters, postcards, manuscripts, published papers, photographs, and other ephemera from Japanese literary authors, critics, artists, and architects such as Abe Kōbo, Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Ōe Kenzaburō, Tanizaki Jun'ichirō. These materials were sent to, or otherwise acquired by, Professor Donald Keene between 1952 and 2004.

Collection of nearly 100 documents, mostly handwritten in Tibetan, produced or gathered by the Neighborhood Committee Number Three (Tib. Grong lhan ang gsum pa) in Lhasa, primarily from 1959-1972. About one-third of the materials are handwritten registries from 1959-1961, listing residents, personal property, and alleged crimes. A second set of materials include four notebooks and other statements documenting struggle sessions against Lhamon Yeshe Tsultrim (Tib. Lha-smon Ye-shes-tshul-khrims, 1913-77), a senior secretary for the Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo Monastery. In sum, these papers constitute primary resources for the study of the Democratic Reforms campaign (Tib. Dmangs gtso bco ʼgyur ; Ch. Min zhu gai ge), as implemented in Tibet. The remaining materials date to the Cultural Revolution, particularly 1966-1972, and include the personal files of previous landowners, transcripts of self-criticisms, and several other autobiographical statements. The collection also includes a handful of published documents (handbills, study-books, and speeches).

The collection consists of published works and writings, including drafts, articles and reprints, drafts for "Halls of the Ancestors", field notes and research, lectures, papers presented and miscellaneous reports as well as correspondence and reports from his travels.