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David Obst Catholic Missionaries in China 1904-1950s: Oral History

Owning Institution: UCLA, Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library

About this Collection

The Collection contains interviews with 55 Catholic missionaries who served in various parts of China between 1904 and the 1950s. In 1967, David Obst, then a graduate student in Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, traveled to Taiwan to advance his Chinese language proficiency. During a hiking trip that May, he met Father Carl, a missionary from Lyon, France, who had lived in Tibet for 30 years before being expelled to Taiwan in 1949. Two weeks later, David returned with a tape recorder to capture Father Carl’s recollections. When asked whether there were others with similar experiences, Father Carl replied that hundreds of Catholic missionaries—Jesuits, Franciscans, Benedictines—were then residing in Taiwan.

David continued his interviews and returned to the United States in 1969 with a collection of reels and tapes documenting the stories of these missionaries. The materials remained stored in his garage for over four decades until 2012, when, on June 5, Mr. Obst generously donated the collection to the Richard C. Rudolph East Asian Library, and transferred interviewer’s rights to the Regents of the University of California.

In 2016, in consultation with the UCLA Library’s AV Preservation Department, the first batch of recordings was sent to a vendor for preservation reformatting. Many of the audiotapes had suffered water damage and required mold remediation and cleaning. The remaining recordings were digitized in 2020 and 2022, completing the preservation process and paving the way for public access through the UCLA Digital Library Program.

The recording was transcribed automatically by Rev.com. The Content Notes were provided by: Yu (Bene) Zhuang (6/2024-4/2025) and Ruochen Cao (summer 2023). View this collection on the contributor's website.

View our statement on digital primary resources and historical description.

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122 items found in this collection

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Alz party
Bài ca dành cho những xác người
Father Hardy
F.E. 3761 / Interviewee 1/ Part 1
F.E. 3761 / Interviewee 1/ Part 2
Interview with a German Father, Part 1
Interview with a German Father, Part 2
Interview with an American Sister, Part 1
Interview with an American Sister, Part 2
Interview with an Austrian Father, Part 1
Interview with an Austrian Father, Part 2
Interview with an Austrian Father, Part 3
Interview with an unidentified Belgian Father
Interview with Belgium Father in Taipei, Part 1
Interview with Belgium Father in Taipei, Part 2
Interview with Belgium Father in Taipei, Part 3
Interview with Father B, Part 1
Interview with Father B, Part 2
Interview with Father B, Part 3
Interview with Father B, Part 4
Interview with Father Borchard, Part 1
Interview with Father Borchard, Part 2
Interview with Father Borchard, Part 3
Interview with Father Cocos, Part 1
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