China

Where China is concerned, the China section of the Henk Sneevliet Archive must be mentioned. In 1991 this unique set of documents was edited and published by the sinologist Professor Tony Saich under the title The Origins of the First United Front in China; The Role of Sneevliet (alias Maring). From the late 1980s the iish in cooperation with the Sinological Institute in Leiden has built up an important collection of documents about the history of the Chinese Communist Party and trade union movement during the years 1921-1949.

In 1989 the Institute acquired a unique collection about the Chinese people's movement during the spring of 1989. In collaboration with the Sinological Institute in Leiden, the IISH agreed to provide the institutional framework for a project, named 'Collection Chinese People's Movement, Spring 1989', while the Dutch Ministry of Education gave the necessary funds. The materials collected through this project are of different types: pamphlets, wall-posters, photographs, video and audio recordings, diaries of people, and the like. The collection also holds documents concerning Chinese social movements and student demonstrations in the 1980s.

The Catalogue of Materials on the pre-1949 Chinese Communist Party History and Workers' Movement at the International Institute of Social History, compiled by Wu Yongping, (1995) was recently digitalised and was added to our website. See for the full text: www.iisg.nl/publications/chinesecatalogue/

Since the mid-nineties the Institute, in close cooperation with sinologist Stefan R. Landsberger (University of Amsterdam, Leiden University), has been collecting Chinese propaganda posters. See: chineseposters.net for an overview of the collections.