MCLC: complimentary copies of Bian Baimei diaries

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Gloria Bien <gbien at colgate.edu>
Subject: complimentary copies of Bian Baimei diaries
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Free copies of the four-volume set of 《卞白眉日记》卞白眉, (1884-1968)
方兆麟, ed. 天津: 天津古籍出版社, 2008 are available to interested scholars
and libraries.

 
Bian Baimei, born in 1884, was Brown University's first Chinese graduate
in 1912, under his English name Z.S. Bien.  On his return to China, Bian
became manager of the Tianjin branch of the Bank of China, a career
discussed in Trust in Troubled Times (Harvard University Press, 2003) by
Brett Sheehan, who named him one of the early architects of the Chinese
banking system, and pointed out that he came from a prominent Yangzhou
family and was related by marriage to the highest circles of the late-Qing
early-Republic elites.  In 1948 Bian moved to Hong Kong, as discussed in
P.T. Lee's "The Chinese Banker in Refuge: Bian Baimei in Hong Kong,
1948-49" (Hong Kong Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, 2011).
In 1949 Bian returned to the United States, where he lived until his death
in 1968. 

 
Bian's daily diary entries from 1914 to 1968 are published in simplified
characters in the four-volume set; only the war years 1941-1945 are
missing.  The print sets are all new and unmarked.  A searchable CD is
available on request.

 
What may be of particular interest to MCLC members is that Bian's writing
style and original poetry were highly praised by the editors in Tianjin,
and according to Brett Sheehan in a personal communication, Bian
frequently mentioned the many Western movies he saw in Tianjin.

 
If you would like a set for your library or university, please contact
<gbien at colgate.edu>

Gloria Bien