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NORTHRIDGE - Some fled Communist Russia or certain death at the hands of Nazis in Germany. Others were missionaries and businessmen seeking opportunity in the Near East.
But they all shared a common experience, making them part of a unique fraternity called Old China Hands: They all lived and worked in China until 1949, when the country fell under Communist Party rule.
Now their experience is recognized in a new archive assembled by Robert Gohstand, an Old China Hand and geography professor emeritus at California State University, Northridge.
CSUN will hold a special two-day event, starting tonight, to open the archive featuring published works on relations between China and other cultures, memoirs and oral histories of Old China Hands, photos, artifacts, and documents such as passports and property records.
"It was an unusual episode in China's history, and (the archive) offers an interesting perspective on both the people who came and the nature of China in those days," said Gohstand, a Granada Hills resident who was born in Shanghai to Russian Jews who had fled anti- Semitism in their homeland.
"China was, for better or worse, altered by the contact, and the people who came were definitely imprinted with their impressions of China, and they haven't forgotten them."
Dozens of Old China Hands have been invited to the dedication ceremony, which will feature an exhibit in the Oviatt Library gallery, a film program, two luncheons,...