- unitid
-
{"value"=>"6176", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"b18672449", "type"=>"local_b"}
{"value"=>"MssCol 6176", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1974-2013", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1974/2013"}
{"value"=>"1976-1989", "type"=>"bulk", "normal"=>"1976/1989"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"US China Peoples Friendship Association records"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"31 boxes", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"12.81 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Manuscripts and Archives</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"The US China Peoples Friendship Association (USCPFA), established in 1974, is a nonprofit organization that seeks to maintain a lasting friendship between the United States and the People's Republic of China. Through educational and cultural exchange, tours, publications, seminars, and exhibitions, the USCPFA works to spread the understanding of both nations. The collection, dated 1974 to 2013, contains administrative files and subject files consisting of correspondence, meeting minutes, financial records, memoranda, reports, photographs, and printed matter."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"English"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>The United States China Peoples Friendship Association (USCPFA), established in 1974, is a nonprofit organization that seeks to maintain a lasting friendship with the Peoples Republic of China. Once the United States established diplomatic relations with China in 1979, the USCPFA was in an excellent position to further its goals. Americans were curious about China and wanted to learn about this distant nation. The USCPFA was ready to meet this need. It sponsored technical, cultural, commercial, and educational exchanges and tours, arranged speakers programs and photo exhibits, offered study classes, and published newsletters, pamphlets and other literature.</p> <p>The individual who had the vision for the creation of the USCPFA was Unita Blackwell (1933-). Blackwell was a veteran civil rights activist and the first African-American woman to be elected mayor in Mississippi. She made numerous trips to China, including as a member of Shirley MacLaine's groundbreaking 1973 Women's Delegation.</p> <p>With the support of her colleagues, the USCPFA developed into a formidable organization that reached across the four corners of the country. To achieve a balance for the organization, the USCPFA divided into four regions (Eastern, Midwest, Southern and Western), sub-regional and local units. Each semiautonomous geographic region elected a president to represent its interests within the USCPFA.</p> <p>The USCPFA's funds and membership peaked in the 1980s and dropped in the 1990s as the organization face competition from tour companies offering travel to China. However, the organization still has 50 chapters throughout the United States, maintains the Center for Teaching About China (CTAC), sponsors an annual two-day seminar, and conducts educational tours of China.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The records of the US China Peoples Friendship Association document its activities from the 1970s to the 2000s. The records are divided into administrative files and subject files consisting of correspondence, meeting minutes, financial records, memoranda, reports, photographs, and printed matter. Administrative records include the National Board minutes, 1978-1991. The subject files include records of the regional branches, materials on the annual conventions, on tours and special events arranged by the USCPFA, and membership files.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The US China Peoples Friendship Association records are arranged in two series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/6176#c1403740'>Series I. Administrative records</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1970s, 1980-2007</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>These files consist chiefly of minutes of the National Board. The National Board (known as the National Steering Committee until Oct. 1979) met periodically in different cities throughout the United States. The Board's responsibility was to act as the governing body of the organization. The minutes document relationship of the national organization to its semiautonomous regional groups. The official minutes contains budgets, committee, membership, and regional reports, resolutions passed, reports from committees, agreements with tour companies/travel agencies and convention planning.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/6176#c1403756'>Series II. Subject files</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1970s-2013</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Subject files, represents the bulk of the collection. The documents span a wide spectrum of USCPFA activities throughout the United States. A brief overview of the USCPFA may be seen in \"Memorandums/Reports and Internal Correspondence\" that includes bylaws, committee reports, correspondence, drafts, financial, and minutes. Topics include committee information, beginning an official publication, memoranda for forming a national organization, tour information, statements by candidates running for office in the USCPFA, and related issues of interests. Whereas, these files focus on the internal operations, the files of general correspondence contain letters received from outside the organization.</p> <p>Of the four regional groups, the Eastern Region files are the most extensive and include sound recordings from a 1989 Eastern Region conference. The Midwest Region is documented mainly through a sampling of newsletters from the Chicago and Detroit chapters. The Southern Region and the Western Region are represented by only a few file in this collection.</p> <p>The membership files contain minutes of the membership committee, requests for membership, correspondence with the local groups regarding membership, dues, and statistical data collected. National convention files include sound recordings from the 1985 National Convention held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p> <p>Files of officers of the USCPFA include those of Director Robert Leeds, President Fred Ptashne, Executive Director Jane C. Leiper, and Treasurer Irving Zuckerman.</p> <p>One of the most important events in USCPFA history was the visit of Premier Zhao Ziyang (1919-2005) to the United States. The USCPFA cosponsored a dinner on January 11, 1984, with the National Association of Chinese Americans (NACA). The files document preparation for the Zhao dinner including correspondence with interested parties, public relations, and the evaluation of the dinner. The files contain two original menus from the event.</p> <p>Audiovisual materials in this series include videotapes of the Washington seminar in 1994 and sound recordings of presentations at the 1995 national convention in Minneapolis, the Eastern Regional conference in 1989, and at other USCPFA meetings. Sound and video recordings are unavailable for use at this time pending preservation transfer.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by the US China Peoples Friendship Association, 2004, 2006, and 2013.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Valerie Wingfield</span> in <span class=\"date\">2010</span>.</p>"}
- revisiondesc
-
{"value"=>"Additions from 2013 were incorporated into the collection by Kit Fluker in 2017.\n ", "date"=>"2017"}
{"value"=>"Sound recordings added to finding aid.", "date"=>"2020"}
- date_start
-
1974
- keydate
-
1974
- date_end
-
2013
- date_inclusive_start
-
1974
- date_inclusive_end
-
2013
- date_bulk_start
-
1976
- date_bulk_end
-
1989
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"US China Peoples Friendship Association records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library"}