ABOUT US

In 1857 a small group of British and Americans seeking intellectual engagement in a city dedicated to commerce established the Shanghai Literary and Scientific Society. Within a year the organisation was granted affiliation with the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, located in London, and the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society was born. Following the death, in 1861, of the Society's first inspirational American president, the Rev. Elijah C. Bridgman, it fell into decline until (Sir) Harry Parkes, British Consul, took the helm in 1864. At that point the Society laid out threefold aims: to investigate subjects connected with China and the surrounding nations; the publication of papers in a Journal; and the formation of a library and a museum.

The Society's first journal, which was to have a life span of 90 years, appeared in 1858. However they, along with books that had been donated by the Shanghai community didn't find a permanent home until 1871 when the first RAS building, on grounds given by the British Crown, was opened. Noted sinologist Dr. Alexander Wylie's collection of over 700 books formed the heart of the library after they were purchased in 1858. Like the building itself the collection was funded by generous public donations.

	The Society's unpretentious building had a reading room, library and lecture hall on the ground floor. In 1874 the second floor was opened as a museum with its prime exhibits being those of stuffed birds mostly shot and donated by local Shanghai sportsmen. In honour of the institution the road where the building was located was renamed Museum Road in 1886.
The First RAS Building

Shanghai's public were again called upon in 1930 as the old building was condemned and demolished. The fund raising for a new headquarters was led by Arthur Carle de Sowerby, director of the museum, later to be RAS president, and the building's distinguished architect and Council member, George Leopold Wilson. The major individual benefactor was Dr. Wu Lien-teh, the head of the Chinese Government Quarantine Service, who gave around one-fifth of the anticipated cost of the new building. Although enough funds were secured for the magnificent modern structure to be erected the effects of the Depression and Sino-Japanese hostilities resulted in the building being delayed and in deep debt after it opened in February 1933.

The New RAS Building 1933

Arthur Carle de Sowerby was president of the Society from 1935 to 1940 and director of the Shanghai Museum from 1925 to 1946. He founded and edited The China Journal from 1923 to 1937.

Despite the donation of plentiful museum exhibits and growing numbers of readers consulting the Society's magnificent and voluminous library, both of which were open to the public free of charge, the Society found it impossible to cast off its burden of debt. Despite efforts to allow its activities to reach a wider

The Shanghai Museum 1933

foreign and Chinese public, local membership only stood at around 350, with around 400 outside Shanghai, in 1939, a year when the Society was facing closure. Its greatest, but ill-timed, hope of financial stability came in 1ate 1941 when the American financed International Institute of China rented part of the building to house their library. Ironically, during the Japanese occupation, in its guise as a Sino-Japanese cultural centre, the museum received more visitors than ever before and the numbers of volumes in the library swelled as private and institutional collections were incorporated, despite the temporary disappearance of over 10,000 volumes to Japan during the war. The RAS continued its work in difficult straits for a few years after the war, but acknowledged that these were its ‘twilight' years. It ceased to function in 1952. Its library was absorbed into the Shanghai Municipal Library and housed in the Bibliotheca Zikawei, part of a mission complex created during the 19th century by French Jesuits.

Despite its troubles the RAS North China Branch had a long and honourable history that richly contributed to the intellectual and cultural life of Shanghai through its valuable research and its spirited public service.

In the belief that Shanghai can again benefit from its presence the RAS was resurrected in the city in 2007.