[photopress:book_for_China.jpg,full,alignright]Former librarian John T. Ma launched the Books-for-China Fund in 2004. This splendid 86-year-old Chinese American scholar has, through the fund, organized thousands of books for China’s universities and libraries.
30,000 books have now been shipped to China from the United States. A container carrying a further 20,000 is expected to reach China in the next month or so.
John T. Ma said his efforts are inspired by his desire to aid China’s development. He said, ‘Studying is very hard work. I hope that young Chinese students could work hard and help build a stronger China in the future.’
John T. Ma was born into a family with a strong artistic tradition in Wenzhou, China in 1920. His father was a professor of calligraphy and an uncle — a professor of Chinese painting — were among a group of leading artists.
During the Sino-Japanese War John joined the AVG, nicknamed ‘The Flying Tigers’. He went to the United States in 1947 and received his MA from the University of Wisconsin and MS in Library Service from Columbia University. After a series of positions at Columbia University, Cornell University, the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Sinological Institute of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, he became the Chinese Librarian at the New York Public Library.
It was during his career as a librarian, that he became aware that Chinese universities were short of old books. The situation has seriously hindered important research work.
Ma launched the Books-for-China Fund in November 2004. Within the space of a year, the first container of 10,000 books was shipped to the Ocean University of China. The books were then handed out to a number of universities and municipal libraries.
The public library of Wenzhou City, John T. Ma’s hometown, received a donation of around 6,000 books from the program.
Source: China View
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