Introduction
Academician Ping-ti Ho (1917–2012), ancestral hometown of Jinhua, Zhejiang, and born in Tianjin, graduated from the Department of History at Tsinghua University in 1938 and began studying British history at Columbia University on government funding in 1944. After receiving his doctorate in 1952, his research interests shifted towards the field of Chinese history in which he held positions at the University of British Columbia, the University of Chicago, and the University of California, Irvine. In 1966, he was elected an academician of Academia Sinica. Ho’s academic interests span a remarkable range of fields, including Ming and Qing historical demography, social stratification and mobility, the origins of Chinese agriculture and culture, and the history of pre-Qin thought. He stands as one of the most representative Sinologists of the twentieth century.
In 2015, with the authorization of family representatives, Ho’s research materials and personal documents, totaling sixteen boxes, were donated to the IHP where they were first held by held by the Fu Ssu-nien Library before being transferred to the Archives in March 2017. Fonds contents include correspondences, reading and research notes, manuscripts, offprints, and newspaper clippings, among others. Moreover, important letters and original historical materials often mentioned in his memoirs, namely Sixty Years of Reading History and Observing the World (in Chinese), can be found therein, reflecting his academic career and serving as an important source for the study of social networks in Sinology during the twentieth century.
In 2015, with the authorization of family representatives, Ho’s research materials and personal documents, totaling sixteen boxes, were donated to the IHP where they were first held by held by the Fu Ssu-nien Library before being transferred to the Archives in March 2017. Fonds contents include correspondences, reading and research notes, manuscripts, offprints, and newspaper clippings, among others. Moreover, important letters and original historical materials often mentioned in his memoirs, namely Sixty Years of Reading History and Observing the World (in Chinese), can be found therein, reflecting his academic career and serving as an important source for the study of social networks in Sinology during the twentieth century.