Prof. Van de Ven's Talk 方德万教授在UBC
by Jing Liu ~ December 4th, 2009. Filed under: Uncategorized, What others are saying.I was invited by the History folks, and Anna forwarded me the primary sources that Prof. Van de Ven used for his article on Liao Chengzhi’s case. I was thrilled to see the hand-written letters from He Xiangning, Zhou Enlai and Sun Fo, and those used-to-be top secret telegram decoded archives. The Reading Group filled the bright CCR office. Discussing in person with 方教授, Prof. Brook, Alison and the graduate buddies was fascinating！ 不禁向这位剑桥学者请教大陆方面原始资料的挖掘情形。他解释了南方局1942年的案子在当年以及多年后的影响，中共中央档案馆应该有大量的文件，但并无解密迹象，连央视摄制组的人都无权光顾，更何况海外学人。
隔天方教授在亚洲研究所的演讲更有趣。他对中国海关史料的关注似乎出于他在南京大学的偶然发现。原来南大的民国史料如此丰富，他当年发现的成千上万的缩微胶卷是中国海关最早的原始资料，居然没有被整理过。类似的情况在国内可能还有，所以很多我们可以挖掘的史料，正如在北美的大量英文史料有关中国，却没有得到整理加工和数字化的优先权。可以做的事情实在是很多，可以当作爱好而并非工作来做。
