Guangzhou Library's “Return of the Historic Images” Collaborative Project

In 2014, the Guangzhou Library, the New Zealand Consulate-General in Guangzhou, and the Presbyterian Archives Research Centre (PARC) New Zealand began collaborating on a project based on a collection of images taken by Presbyterian missionaries from New Zealand in China’s Guangdong Province from the late Qing Dynasty to the early 1950s after the founding of the PRC. The project has produced a successful photography exhibition and other achievements which gained widespread media coverage and overwhelming public support. In February 2015, the PARC has delivered 2,000 digitized images concerning old Guangzhou to the Guangzhou Library. Based on these images, the Guangzhou Library has chosen to further pursue collaboration and give the city more access to its unique past. The project exemplifies the library’s effort to preserve and promote the city’s cultural heritage, and how libraries and other cultural institutions can collaborate across borders to bring to light our shared history. This paper will trace the evolution of the project; elaborate our goals and accomplishments so far, and project our goals for the future.