04. SDB China-Historiography %28Fr. C. Socol SDB-CIN%29


04. SDB China-Historiography %28Fr. C. Socol SDB-CIN%29

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EAO Regional Conference on Salesian Historiography
Day 2 | Tuesday | 5 Nov 2013
“The State of Salesian Historiography
and the Conservation and Development of the Salesian Historical Patrimony
in the Region” (Cebu, 4-8 Nov 2013)
DRAFT 2
“One Hundred Years of Salesian Historiography in China”
- By Carlo Socol, with Carlos Cheung, Rhomel Mendoza, Joseph Phung and Bosco Hai
Preamble: The successive development stages of an Institution and Historiography
Salesians in China, and not only, ought to be grateful to the many people who in different ways, some
more scientific and better organized, other more popular and less ambitious, have helped preserve and
transmit the memory of things past. Given the variety of approaches and contributions our research team
has come across, the present report intentionally attempts to go beyond the concept of ‘historiography’ in
the strict sense, i.e the study of the way history has been and is being written with an acceptable degree of
historical method, and offer instead a panorama of the main publications that have been produced in the
more than 100 years lifespan of the China Province with the explicit or implicit intention to narrate the
vicissitudes of the almost 1000 men who were/are part of it, and of the considerable work they carried out,
irrespective of whether these accounts qualify as ‘historiography’ or not.
It is institutional historiography we wish to talk about, both in its strict and in its broader sense.
Why this broader approach? Why not disregard the more tentative types of publications and concentrate
on historiography proper? The idea was inspired not by disregard of the work of trained historians, but
rather by the realization that historical accounts about, and stemming from, a living institution are there to
serve the development of that institution and the self-understanding by the members. Trained historians
are the people we turn to when we wish to get a reliable understanding of the past. This breed of people
have – or should have - a special interest in researching primary and reliable sources, and by reason of
their training they should naturally possess an above average sense of mission in attempting to dutifully
hand down to posterity well researched accounts of the past. It is their professional duty to share with
others the fruits of their painstaking research in archives and libraries, intelligently and conscientiously
sifting through boxes and folders full of dusty papers, seeking further evidence to corroborate what is
available, and on the basis of this work and materials produce Historiography, scientifically written
history, to the best of their abilities.
That having been said, we need to realize that historiography, especially institutional historiography, is
seldom undertaken out of pure, selfless, personal love and interest for matters pertaining history.
Institutional historians and history lovers are part of institutions that at different stages of their
development generate the conditions under which accounts that differ in nature, quality or outlook are
sought and naturally produced, which may or may not meet the requirements of historiography, but whse
content nonetheless qualifies as “historical”. Put in another way, it is not so much the historian who
decides to write, but rather the very life of the institution that provokes the needs, which historians
address, and the opportunities which historians seize.

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That is what came to my mind when our team of young Salesians produced the bibliography they were
assigned to prepare: what we got is a list of different types of books and publications that the China
Province has produced over its span of existence, and that naturally contain historical information of
unequal value, so they hardly qualify as historiography. And yet they are very important to understand the
life of the institution that produced them.1
Whether an historian can actually write objective history, and to what extent he can do it, is a well-known
subject of discussion even among the uninitiated. The closest an historian can get to historical truth is as
an outsider, and an observer. Rather than claiming to reconstruct historical truth, honest historians
nowadays would simply admit they merely wish to reach a reasonably accurate understanding of the past.
Institutional historians are no exception. Institutional historiography responds to diverse needs in the life
of an institution, and anyone who attempts to write an historical account of any sort is influenced to do so
by the particular developmental stage of the institution for which he writes: his horizon is pretty much
circumscribed by time, circumstances and tools available, as we shall see in the course of this presentation.
Besides, institutional historians are inevitably influenced by previous generations of writers, whether they
decide to continue the work of predecessors or to steer clear of it. More imperceptibly, yet even more
radically, they are themselves to some extent products of the institution they serve, and intentionally or
unintentionally they respond to some of its core needs, such as understanding of self, of its origins, of its
mission within the territory in which it has been implanted: an institutional historian who fails to do that
would be a poor historian; responding to those needs differently expressed over a span of decades and
generations again accounts for the different types of historical publications, or general publications with a
historical content one come across.
The key concept, here, is development and its link with historiography: “the natural development of
times”, as the Istituto Storico Salesiano people put it, “the diverse social, economic, cultural or political
circumstances which have been the direct or indirect agent of the evolution” of Salesian work in any
country. 2 Salesian work in China started more than a century ago, in 1906, and the institution that
gradually developed and expanded in all this time has gone through many phases of development: from
being part of the Portuguese and Subalpine Provinces, to becoming first a Visitatoria (1923), then a fully-
fledged Province (1926), with its territory at first limited to the tiny enclave of Macao, gradually
expanding to the Mainland at first just across the border (1911), then further north to Shaoguan (1917),
Shanghai (1924), Xuzhou and Beijing (1946), and westward to Kunming (1935), south to Hong Kong
(1927) and east to Taiwan (1963).3
Its outlook and vision-mission has changed time and gain over all this time: it had its earliest mission
territory entrusted in 1912, a Vicariate Apostolic of its own in 1920; it started out with an orphanage and
industrial school in Macao, opened the very first industrial school in Hong Kong, and eventually in the
1930s strategically chose to set up a network of trade schools and grammar schools all over China. It
opened youth centres, managed parishes and, in the last 30 years or so, social services as well.
1 Storiografia Salesiana: prospettive e possibili piste di ricerca. Sintesi degli interventi della tavola rotonda (28 novembre 2007),
in RSS 51-7, p. 207.
2 Ibid., p. 208.
3 CARLO SOCOL, The Birth of the China Province and the Expansion of the Salesian Work in East Asia (1926-1927), in NESTOR
IMPELIDO (ed.), The Beginnings of Salesian Presence in East Asia, ACSSA Varia 2, Don Bosco Press, Makati, 2006, pp. 47-61;
ID. The history of Salesian education in China, in XU XIAOZHOU and R. GIANNATELLI (Ed.), Educational innovation:
perspectives of internationalization, Hangzhou, Zhejiang University Press 2006, pp. 26-35
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It has played different roles, and these have brought along different exigencies: it was involved in the
birth of Salesian work in several neighbouring countries: Japan (1926), Thailand (1927), East Timor
(1927), Philippines (1951) and Vietnam (1952). All these have been part of the China Province. And at
one point, in 1927, China, Japan, Thailand and East Timor all obeyed the same Provincial Superior.4
Superiors and simple missionaries, locals and expatriates have written reports and accounts regarding
particular aspects of the life of Salesian work in China: people needed to narrate, to report; there were
events to chronicle, or to celebrate; there were people to be remembered, and things people needed to
understand. Our bibliographical research has harvested titles on such genres as biographies, reports of
various types, chronicles and diaries, celebratory publications, periodicals, magazine articles, anniversary
publications and, of course, books and articles written with historiographical intent. On the basis of this
rich material the present report has been drafted.
First of all we have tried to identify criteria to rationalize the excessive fragmentation in the types of
publications produced. As a consequence, we have divided the materials into five corpuses by reason of
period or circumstances for which they were written, nature or genre, and content.
The first corpus of publications
The first group of publications comprises the following 8 items:
1. Orfanato da Imaculada Conceição. Relatório. Ano de 1919
2. LUIGI VERSIGLIA, Un missionario salesiano in Cina: Don Lodovico Olive. Torino, SEI, 1919, pp. 112.
3. Inter Nos (1919-1963)
4. GIOVANNI GUARONA, La Missione del Leng Nam Tou. Chi Hing, in IN 1.6, 31.10.1919, p. 1
5. [IGNAZ CANAZEI], Orfanotrofio Immacolata Concezione di Macau (Cina). Monografia Storica, [1925] in
AIC, Ispettoria. Cronache.
6. [GIOVANNI GUARONA ET AL.], Vicariato Apostolico di Shiu Chow in Cina (Leng Nam Tou), Torino, SEI
1925 pp. 167.5
7. CARLO FRIGO, Diario, Ed. Giovanni Borgo, Venezia, Tipografia Adriatica, s.d. 6
8. Pastoral Letters of Mons. I. Canazei, printed in Chinese by the Don Bosco Institute of Shiuchow:
Anno 1931 Sulle Vocazioni
Anno 1932 De Adiuvanda Ecclesia
Anno 1933 De Anno Sancto
Anno 1934 De Fide
Anno 1935 Fructus Anni Redemptionis
Anno 1936 De Sacrifitio Missae
Anno 1937 De Oratione
Anno 1938 De Quaraesima
Anno 1939 Questiunculae
Anno 1941 De Maria Auxiliatrice
4 Ibid.
5 Presunto autore è Don Giovanni Guarona, Vicario Generale del Vicariato Apostolico di Shiuchow.
6 Authorship of the book as claimed by the editor - GIOVANNI BORGO, Avventure in tre continenti: dalle memorie di Carlo Frigo
missionario Salesiano. – is misleading.
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Reports prevail, but there are one important diary and one precious biography. These publications
appeared in two distinctive periods of time, both crucial for the development of Salesian work in
China: the years 1919-1925 and 1931-1941.
The year 1919 was a turning point for the Salesian work in China after a disappointing initial period
in Macao, with the Salesians abandoning the orphanage in 1910 only to return two years later with a
school project. In the meantime, they had started doing mission work in Heungshan (1911) and more
recently in Shiuchow (1917). In 1919 a number of events coincided:
- The coming of age and the principal expansion, both in quality and size, of the Macao Orfanato,
the motherhouse not only of the China Province but of the entire Salesian work in Southeast Asia,
founded in 1906 and eager to preserve its roots and mission as a social service (an orphanage), but
also proud and capable to offer reasonably well-structured courses in a variety of curricula taught at
the annexed School of Arts and Trades. Management was keen to explain the educational and social
nature of the establishment, and to seek funds necessary to finance expansion. A report – the 1919
Relatório - was produced and distributed among prospective supporters. The historical relevance of
this pamphlet derives from the fact that the Salesians for the first time explained to the public in an
organic way the mission that the Institute was trying to carry out. 7 The breakthrough had been
possible by the energetic role played during that year by Fr. Ignaz Canazei (future Provincial and
Vicar Apostolic of Shiuchow) in the absence of the rector Fr. Luigi Versiglia, busy in the newly
accepted Vicariate Apostolic of Shiuchow.8
- In September of that same year a second expedition comprising nine new missionaries (among
whom was Don Carlo Braga) joined the six who had been sent the previous year to take over the
Shiuchow mission, which was to be hived off from the Vicariate Apostolic of Canton. While the
decree of erection of the new vicariate came in April 1920, the unconditional decision to entrust the
Salesians with the care of the Shiuchow territory, or the Leng Nam Tou (North Guangdong), as it was
then known, was taken in 1919.
- On 17 September 1919, twelve days prior to the arrival of the new missionaries, occurred the
death of Fr. Ludovic Olive, a member of the 1906 expedition, missed by all. His sudden departure
was a shock for Versiglia, who lost a trusted companion. Of him Versiglia wrote a short but inspiring
biography addressed to young people in Italy, describing the life of a missionary, and the challenges
he had to face, the environment in which he lived, worked and travelled, all of which of course did
not refer to Pere Olive alone, but was what missionaries faced in China. Interspersed inside the
narrative one finds first hand historical information not to be found elsewhere, including the
circumstances that led to the publication of the first biography of Don Bosco in Chinese, a short
account totaling 18 pages written in 1918 in classical Chinese by future sinologist, then just a
scholastic, Pasquale D’Elia SJ. The printing shop of the Orfanato had just acquired Chinese language
7 On the Relatório, cfr. CARLO SOCOL, The first twenty years of the Orfanato of Macao between ideal and reality (1906-1926), in
FR. MOTTO (ed.), Insediamenti e iniziative salesiane dopo Don Bosco. Saggi di storiografia, Roma LAS 1996, pp. 275-325
8 On the role of I. Canazei as Prefect of Studies at the Orphanato during the year 1918-1919, cfr. CARLO SOCOL, The
Implantation of the Salesian Charism in China (1906-1936): Ideals, Challenges, Answers and Results, in Kapplikunnel M. (ed.),
The Implantation of the Salesian Charism in Asia Ideals, Challenges, Answers and Results, ACSSA Varia 7, Kristu Jyoti
Publications, Bangalore 2009, pp. 126-129.
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types, and it was suggested the first work to be printed should be the life of Don Bosco. It had to be
eventually entrusted to a more experienced commercial printer.9
The life of Per Ludovic Olive is the first of many biographies that were written over the years, a
favourite literary genre measurable not just in terms of quantity, but in some cases of quality as
well.10
- The appearance of the Inter Nos, a bulletin circulated among the Salesian missionaries in China,
now stationed in territories 400km apart (that is the distance between Macao and Shiuchow)
coincided with the arrival of the new missionaries. It was an organ of information, communication
and animation. The first issue (29 Sep 1919) starts precisely with the announcement of the death of Fr.
Olive, a piece of news that challenged the faith of the first group of missionaries as they enter, united
in solidarity, the “dear mission the Lord has entrusted to us”, as Versiglia put it. The Inter Nos has
had many lives: early on it was stopped by the Superiors, who felt it was becoming too gossipy; it
was stopped by the war, as many missionaries were interned. And yet it managed to survive even then
through a much simplified ‘war edition’. Most issues were printed: it was a good typesetting exercise
either for the apprentices in Macao or those from Shiuchow. For a rather long period it was hand-
written and hand-printed with a rudimentary mimeographic device. It was first published in
September 1919, and was supplanted by the Newsletter (the present news periodical of the China
Province) in 1965. In it one finds well written articles such as La Missione del Leng Nam Tou. Chi
Hing, written by Vicar General Fr. Giovanni Guarona, and a treasure trove of precious historical
information on the single missions not found anywhere else, the lives of missionaries, the territory
and its social and political vicissitudes.
By 1925 the two main areas where the Salesians exercised their apostolate, viz. the Orphanato da
Imaculada Conçeicão in Macao, together with the Heungshan mission entrusted by the bishop in
adjacent Mainland territory, and the Vicariate Apostolic of Shiuchow, had developed to a mature
status. The Macao orphanage had been chosen by the Hong Kong government as the model for the
first industrial school to be set up in the British colony, the future Aberdeen Trade (later Industrial
and now Technical) School. The Salesians were expanding further inland in China: the first Salesian
work in Shanghai had started the previous year. China, still a Visitatoria, had its novitiate for the
formation of both missionary and local personnel, and was soon to become a fully-fledged Province,
projected towards future expansion both East and West, with missions in Thailand and Japan in sight.
The time seemed ripe to illustrate how mainstream Salesian work had developed. The opportunity to
do so was given by the World Expo of Catholic Missions to be held in Rome on the occasion of the
1925 Holy Year Jubilee.11 Two important reports, with plenty of photographs, were prepared at this
stage: L’orfanotrofio di Macau e la missione dell’ Heung-shan in Cina, by Ignaz Canazei,12 83 pages
9 LUIGI VERSIGLIA, Un missionario salesiano in Cina: Don Lodovico Olive. Torino, SEI, 1919, p. 95; 德修士 (Pasquale D’Elia)
童鲍司高若望司铎传略，澳门无原罪工艺学堂1918.
10 Best biography: VASCO TASSINARI, Don Braga, l’ uomo che ebbe tre patrie, Bologna 1990, pp. 871; also FRANCESCO CASELLA,
Profilo biografico storico-documentario di Mons. Michele Arduino ultimo vescovo di Shiuchow, Roma 2000, and others.
Tassinari’s biography of Don Braga is a bold attempt with a historical and journalistic approach which has produced some
important scoops. It is based on a huge amount of material researched with passion, but at times not evenly handled, and its
writing towards the end is somewhat rushed.
11 Atti, Anno III 24 giugno 1923, N. 20.
12 AIC has two anonymous manuscripts, in the handwriting of Canazei, one entitled Orfanotrofio Immacolata Concezione di
Macau (Cina). Monografia Storica, [1925] in AIC, Ispettoria. Cronache. It was published - partly edited and minus some
interesting statistics – in the Salesian Missions series. The other, entitled Monografia della missione del Distretto di Heung Shan
(Cina) affidato ai missionari Salesiani (1900-1924) in ASC A8650304.
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in all; and Leng Nam Tou - Vicariato Apostolico di Shiu Chow in Cina, 167 pages in all. Both were
published by SEI in 1825 in the series Missioni Salesiane.
In 1930, only months after the death of Mons. Luigi Versiglia, outgoing Salesian Provincial Ignaz
Canazei was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Shiuchow. A man with an above average understanding of
the cultural, political and ecclesial climate of China, Canazei fully supported the transition of the
China missions towards the goal of becoming a local Church, a process that had begun with Benedict
XV’s Encyclical Maximum Illud (1919). He doggedly took steps to bring the Shiuchow Vicariate in
line with the thinking of the Church, something not appreciated by everyone, in Turin as well as in
Shiuchow, especially those who wanted the mission to be typically Salesian in all aspects, with
regular communities, schools, oratories and so forth. 13
The set of annual circulars written since 1931 cannot be considered historiography in any sense, but
they do have a strong historical ‘valence’ which nowadays we may appreciate even more than it was
back then: in fact it allows us to enter into the problematic, the challenges, the values, the choices that
induced Bishop Canazei to write to his flock using the Chinese language. There are numerous reports
on the Shiuchow Vicariate written in Italian for the sake of the Holy See or benefactors. There are
two known circulars of Versiglia in Chinese, but here we have systematic communication privileging
the local church, in order to better reach the not so numerous local clergy, church community leaders
and workers (the more numerous consecrated ‘virgins’ attached to the various churches) and believers
at large, many of whom were active members of Catholic Action, a strong movement in China
warmly recommended by the Apostolic Delegate Archbishop Celso Costantini.
The fact that we have ten topics, through a program developed over a 10 year period, gives us a fair
understanding of the systematic type of formation being imparted, the program of catechesis that had
been prepared for the formation of the laity. The first circular, on Local Vocations, came out in 1931,
the first year of Bishop Canazei: he was an ardent promoter of autochthonous vocations and right
away set up the minor seminary in the Vicariate Apostolic. The 1932 circular, on Helping the Church,
or rather Being Church, introduced the concept and praxis of Lay Apostolate (宗座宣传信德会):
what is the work of evangelization, how the association would be organized, and an exhortation by
the Bishop to seize this opportunity to become Church. The last circular, issued in 1941 when the
Sino-Japanese war had reached Shiuchow, is on Mary Help of Christians: and we may understand
why the bishop decided to write a letter on this particular topic. Shortly thereafter Bishop Canazei
was interned and kept incommunicado by the Japanese in the belfry of the church in Hosai, next to
the minor seminary.14
Second Corpus
This second corpus of history books revolves around two major events that severely traumatized the life
of the China Province: the 1930 murder of Bishop Versiglia and Don Caravario, and the communist
liberation of the Mainland in 1949.
13 FORTUNATO MARGIOTTI, La Cina cattolica al traguardo della maturità, in J. METZLER, Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda
Fide Rerum Memoria 1622-1972, Vol. III/2 1815-1972, Roma, Herder 1972, p. 528; SOCOL, The implantation, cit. p. ??
14 Complete collection in ASC.
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1. BASSANO LARENO FACCINI, Assassinio di Mons. Luigi Versiglia e Don Callisto Caravario
(25.II.1930). Documentazione Storica, Hong Kong 1933 pp. 78
2. GIUSEPPE CUCCHIARA, Tre anni di Bolschevismo in Cina: la missione salesiana di Shiu-chow
durnate il periodo 1926-1929, Firenze, Scuola Tipografica Salesiana 1931, pp. 70
3. GUIDO BOSIO, Monsignor Versiglia e Don Caravario. Testimonianze sull’ eccidio di Lai Thau
Tsoei, Torino 1935, pp. 200
4. GUIDO BOSIO, Martiri in Cina. Mons. Luigi Versiglia e Don Callisto Caravario nei loro scritti e
nelle testimonianze dei coetanei. Profilo storico, Torino 1977 pp. 483
5. CALLISTO CARAVARIO, Lettere, ed. Ferreira Antonio da Silva, Roma 1998, Edizione extra
commerciale. [Ed. poligrafata. Contiene 222 lettere]
6. ID., Mia carissima mamma. Cinque anni di corrispondenza del giovane salesiano martire in Cina
(ottobre 1924 – febbraio 1930), cur. F. Motto, Roma 2000, pp. 151
7. ID., Lettere di S. Callisto Caravario, salesiano martire, Hong Kong 2000 pp. 273 [versione cinese,
contiene 103 lettere]
8. PIETRO POMATI. Blood on the River bank. Hong Kong: Salesiana Publisher, 2000³, pp. 137.
[Chinese Original]
9. MARIO RASSIGA, Blood on the river bank, Hong Kong 2000² pp. 46
10. CASTILLO LARA R.J. (Card.), I Santi Martiri Luigi Versiglia (vescovo) e Callisto Caravario
(presbitero). Commemorazione ufficiale […] in occasione della loro Canonizzazione, Roma 2000,
pp. 16
11. GIANCARLO MANIERI, Lai-Tau-Tsui, punta d’aratro, Roma 2000, pp. 174
12. RUDOLF HASELSTEINER, Pietro Yeh Ming Zen, chierico salesiano cinese, 1921-1952. Hong Kong:
Tang King Po School, 1964, pp. 180.
13. MARIO RASSIGA, Per la Chiesa e per il Papa. Sac. Luigi Yeh sdb, Sac. Giuseppe Fu sdb, Ch.
Pietro Yeh sdb, Hong Kong 1989 pp. 81 [testo poligrafato]
14. WONG YUN SUNG, Memoirs of a Chinese Salesian Brother, Marco Wong Yiko (1910-2000),
unpublished pamphlet transcribed from an oral account, 29th August 1990.
Eleven titles relate to the martyrdom of Versiglia and Caravario, which occurred on Feb. 25, 1930. People
like Don Lareno and Don Bosio, who wrote shortly after the event and tried to collect documents and
witness declarations, initially speak of “assassination” and “slaughter”, but the very purpose for which the
books were written was to prove that it was actually martyrdom the two missionaries had suffered. The
declaration of martyrdom, however, came only in 1976, and this is reflected in the title of the biographical
and spiritual portrait of the two martyrs (the well-known Martiri in Cina) published by Bosio, more on
the basis of correspondence and (prevalently hagiographical) testimonies collected by the author than on
the examination and interpretation of early witness reports which concentrated mainly on facts.
The argument for martyrdom rests on the fact that the two Salesians were killed by Bolshevik stray
soldiers in a period in which anti-foreign and consequently anti-Catholic sentiment ran high as a
consequence of the political awakening of China, the birth of the Chinese Communist Party and the
support China received from Soviet Russia in this process. This is where the work of Fr. Giuseppe
Cucchiara comes useful. Though not the first author to document the new, worrisome political climate,15
15 The first to chronicle the early activities of bolschevism in the district (1924-25) was [GIOVANNI GUARONA ET AL.], Vicariato
Apostolico di Shiu Chow in Cina (Leng Nam Tou), Torino, SEI 1925, pp. 87-99. Soviet support of Kuomintang began in 1921.
PERMANENT BUREAU OF THE INTERNATIONAL ENTENTE AGAINST THE 3RD INTERNATIONAL, Bolshevism in China, Geneva 1932.
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Cucchiara can rightly claim to be the first to have written a book on Bolshevism and its trail of terror and
destruction in the region of the Vicariate.16 The apex of this work of collection of documentary evidence
came with the Diocesan Informative Process, which was decided at the 1932 Provincial Chapter, and was
actually celebrated not without internal dissent in 1934-35. 17 All this documentation has a unique
historical value, but it has not yet been fully and duly analyzed. We wish we knew more about the
dynamics and above all the motivations of the murder, but it is not an easy task to sift facts from opinion
and emotive evaluations. The material collected in the Vicariate needs also to be supplemented by further
research in other archives, such as the archives of the Italian Foreign Ministry, to whom consular
authorities reported on the incident: Italian authorities worked with their Chinese counterparts, but while
the Italian papers are there, I am not sure if Chinese government papers still exist, and if they do whether
they can be consulted or not.
Equally interesting and appealing from an historical point of view is the correspondence of Callisto
Caravario, published only in part in both Italian and Chinese. It is interesting not only for what it tells us,
but for what it does not say. It tells us of the candid spirituality of this young priest, of his love for his
family and his ardent love for missionary life, of his first steps as a young missionary and zealous service
to the young, but little about the momentous things that happened, especially in Shanghai, like the civil
war, labour and anti-foreign strife between 1924 and 1927: one hears the rumble of the cannon in the
distance, as if war did not touch the daily life of students and teachers. The world of a missionary in a
Salesian house appears contained mainly within the walls of the institute. Quite different was the case of
the missionaries in the Vicariate, constantly on the go and in daily contact with the challenges families,
villages and the entire region faced in those years of civil war and political unrest.
On Oct. 1, 1949 Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the birth of the People’s Republic of China. The
Communist Party went on to establish a socialist society, using the tools they knew best: not the law, of
which they only had a rudimentary and utilitarian grasp, but revolutionary struggle, of which they were
masters. Attack against the Church came in the midst of national campaigns, such as the Campaign to
Suppress Counter Revolutionaries (1951), movements, such as the “Three Self Patriotic Movement”
(1951), or local crackdowns, such as the arrest of Bishop Gong Pingmei of Shanghai and many members
of the clergy (including Salesians) in an attempt to break Catholic resistance to new, independent
course.18
The entire Salesian personnel on the Mainland, 130 in all, were affected. By 1956 all foreign missionaries,
individually or as a group vilified in the press, had been expelled. Behind were left 21 mainly young
Chinese confreres, 8 priests, the rest clerics or coadjutors, not counting Cl. Peter Yeh, who had died in jail
in May 1952. In the 1956 Province directory 6 were given as dispersed, the rest as being imprisoned. All
21 houses, were given either as “occupied” or “temporarily closed”. Meanwhile a group of senior
aspirants had been transferred to Hong Kong or Macao. The China Province looks back at those years
16 GIUSEPPE CUCCHIARA, Tre anni di Bolschevismo in Cina: la missione salesiana di Shiu-chow durnate il periodo 1926-1929,
Firenze, Scuola Tipografica Salesiana 1931, pp. 70
17 “Sinarum seu Vicariatus Apostolici Shiuchow BEATIFICATIONIS SEU DECLARATIONIS MARTYRII servorum Dei Aloysii
Versiglia Episcopi Charystens. Vicarii Ap. Shiuchow et Callisti Caravario Sacerdotis, e Pia Societate Salesiana S. Joannis
Bosco. Processus informativus super fama martyrii eiusque causa, signorum seu miraculorum in genere (Anno Domini
MCMXXXIV)”, in ASC, A360.0101
18 Cfr.R.P. RIQUET, L’Eglise des Ecrases: Shanghai 1949-1955 (=Cahiers du Temoignage Chretien XXXVI), Paris s.d.; James T.
Mayers, Nemici senza fucile: la Chiesa Cattolica nella Repubblica Popolare Cinese, Jaka Book, Milano 1984; Elisa Giunipero,
Chiesa Cattolica e Cina Comunista: dalla rivoluzione del 1949 al Concilio Vaticano II, Morcelliana Brescia, 2007.
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with a feeling of admiration for the confreres who died and suffered for their allegiance to Rome, with
sadness for the amount of energy and good will frustrated, and with hope in a future return to the
Mainland when the conditions will be there to do so. The 2013-2014 directory of the China Province of
Mary Help of Christians still lists all houses and schools in the Mainland as “Temporarily Closed”.19
Some confreres eventually died in prison, others suffered lengthy labour camp sentences, a few cracked
up. So far no one has dared to try to produce a serious reconstruction of those years to try to understand
and put into perspective the events. These events deserve a proper understanding and evaluation. So far
all we are left with are the individual testimonies of “heroic witness to Christ and to His Church”, and one
book: the life of Pietro Yeh Ming Zen, chierico salesiano cinese, 1921-1952, 20 and several other
unpublished accounts, like the Memoirs of Bro. Marco Wong.
Third corpus
This sector is the most prolific: it is clear that celebration is an important part of life. Here only the most
significant papers have been quoted.
[IGNAZ CANAZEI] The Golden Jubilee of the Salesian Missions, Macao 1925 [Testo in 5 lingue]
[ANONYMOUS],Souvenir of the Salesian Work in the Far East 1906-1966, Macao 1966 (trilingual edition:
Portuguese, Chinese and English).
MARIO RASSIGA, Quindici lustri di apostolato salesiano in Cina 1906-1981, pp. 44
GIULIANO CARPELLA, St. Louis School, Hong Kong. A short history written for the golden jubilee of
Salesian administration, Hong Kong 1977, pp. 68 (English and Chinese Ed.)
[LANFRANCO FEDRIGOTTI – DOMINGOS LEONG], 60th Anniversary of the Salesian House of Studies
1931-1991, [cronistoria con testo inglese e cinese], Newsletter of the Salesian Chinese Province Jan-Feb.
1992, special issue, pp. 55.
CARLO SOCOL – DOMINGOS LEONG, The Dream Continues. Centenary of the Salesians of Don Bosco in
China. Hong Kong: Don Bosco Publishing Services, 2006, pp. 239.
MARIO RASSIGA AND JOSEPH CHEUNG, One Hundred Years of Salesian Presence in China, Bilingual
Edition. Hongkong: Vox Amica, 2009, pp. 133.
Not only do we have publications for the 25th, 50th, 60th, 75th and 100th anniversaries of the Province.
Virtually all our schools have annual magazines, and every 10 years or so they produce special
anniversary issues, which – one must say - are quite repetitive as they serve new generations of students.
They are entrusted to editorial committees of students under the direction of teachers. The tendency is to
copy: no incentives are provided to deepen, for instance, the history and mission of the school. There are,
of course, exceptions, e.g. the well written and informative 20th Anniversary “Souvenir Number” of the
19 CHINA PROVINCE OF MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS, Directory 2013-2014, Hong Kong 2013, p. 64.
20 MARIO RASSIGA, In memoriam: A tribute to the deceased Salesians who worked in China (1906-1986), Hong Kong Salesian
China Province 1987, p.57; RUDOLF HASELSTEINER, Pietro Yeh Ming Zen, chierico salesiano cinese, 1921-1952. Hong Kong:
Tang King Po School, 1964, pp. 180.
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Aberdeen Trade School (1935-1955) or of some outstanding features of the 60th anniversary issue (1927-
1987) of the St. Louis magazine.
For ordinary people who are not very demanding, and who consider history to be made of dates,
chronologies and old photographs, this kind of literature is all they need. When they see something
studiously prepared, well written, handy in size and shape, they turn to it for all their knowledge
requirements, and these nifty little booklets turn out to be the most consulted reference materials for
readers at large, especially when little else exists, as in the case of M. Rassiga’s Quindici Lustri di
apostolato salesiano in Cina 1906- 1981, a slim little booklet of 44 pages, produced in three languages,
Italian, Chinese and English)21, or G. Carpella’s 1977 St. Louis School, Hong Kong. A short history
written for the golden jubilee of Salesian administration, the booklet to consult about the first Salesian
house in Hong Kong, the one that Don Bosco negotiated to have, unsuccessfully, in 1873-74.22 There are
of course people who approached chronology in a scholarly manner: this is the case of the chronology of
the Salesian House of Studies: the 60th Anniversary of the Salesian House of Studies 1931-1991, by
Lanfranco Fedrigotti and Domingos Leong, well researched and realiable.
The most recent example of what a celebratory book can present is the China Province centennial
publication, The Dream Continues. Centenary of the Salesians of Don Bosco in China, written by C.
Socol and D. Leong, and published in 2006. This book manages to strike a good balance between
attractive narration of events and an acceptable historiographical approach.
Fourth corpus
1. CARLO A. KIRSCHNER, Dom Bosco e a China. Contributo para a História dos Salesianos, Macau
1970 pp. 370.
2. MARIO RASSIGA, Breve cenno storico dell’ opera salesiana in Cina, 3 voll., 8 tomi, Hong Kong
1975 [testo poligrafato]
3. MARIO RASSIGA, L’ opera salesiana in Cina. Cenno storico, parte 1-3, Hong Kong 1973-1975
[testo poligrafato]
4. MARIO RASSIGA, A short historical account of the Salesian work in China (1906-1930), trad. B.
Tohill, Hong Kong 1987 pp. 67+66 [traduzione inglese delle parti 1-2 dell’ opera precedente.
Testo poligrafato]
5. MARIO RASSIGA, La missione salesiana di Shiu Chow. Cenno storico, Hong Kong 19892, pp.
152
With the fourth corpus we approach historiography proper.
The earliest attempt to write a history of the Salesians in China was conceived by veteran China
missionary Fr. Pietro Pomati (+1994) and dates back to 1935. It was probably inspired by the Diocesan
Canonization Process of Versiglia and Caravario celebrated in 1934-35 of which Fr. Pomati was one of
the secretaries. It was abandoned and taken up again twenty years later, but it never went beyond Ch. 1
and of course remained unpublished. It was entitled Don Bosco in Cina, and what unwittingly put the
21 MARIO RASSIGA AND JOSEPH CHEUNG, One Hundred Years of Salesian Presence in China, Bilingual Edition. Hongkong: Vox
Amica, 2009, pp. 133 updated Rassiga’s 1975 work.
22 CARLO SOCOL, Don Bosco’s missionary call and China, in Ricerche Storiche Salesiane, XXV-2, Lug-Dic 2006, pp. 239-254.
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word ‘the end’ to it was Fr. Ziggiotti’s timely advice: “Continua pure così: attienti scrupolosamente alla
storia, alle statistiche e da rilievo al metodo educativo e ai risultati ottenuti tra i giovani cinesi. La storia
della Missione va trattata a parte”.23 For a man who essentially grew up in the mission, the task suggested
by the Rector Major was becoming too challenging.
Carlo Antonio Kirschner and Mario Rassiga delivered the first histories of Salesian work in China. They
were both second generation missionaries who arrived in China in the 1920s and grew up and did their
studies mainly in the missions. They are the links between their generation and mine, the 5th generation,
when most early generation missionaries were beginning to, or had already passed away, and
management was increasingly entrusted to locals who had not been involved in early historical context, or
were too young to have had any significant knowledge of it.
In their earlier years they both worked in the Vicariate Apostolic of Shiuchow. Fr. Kirschner (arrived in
1921, died in Macao 1984) witnessed the destruction of the mission after the Sino-Japanese war,24 and
was instrumental in smuggling precious documents out of the vicariate, some of which were quite
sensitive and personally entrusted to him by Ignaz Canazei. For this reason, perhaps, the documents were
not deposited in the Provincial Archives (AIC), where they should naturally belong, but were brought to
Rome and partly entrusted to Raffaele Farina and are now kept in the Centro Studi Don Bosco, partly
eventually ended up in the Central Salesian Archives.25
Kirschner was close to Bishop Canazei, from whom he absorbed a strong sense of mission, through which
he closely identified with the Vicariate Apostolic of Shiuchow. In the period before his expulsion he was
vicar forane and rector of the Lokchong house. His long sojourn in Macao, where he died in 1984, helped
him win the confidence of Bishop Paulo Jose Tavares (1961-1973) and gain access to hitherto unknown
documents in the Macao Diocesan Archives. He eventually published a series of partly connected and
partly unconnected articles on Don Bosco and China in the Boletim do Governo Eclesiástico da Diocese
de Macau. These he collected and eventually published in a volume: Dom Bosco e a China: contributo
para a História dos Salesianos, Macau, Tipografia da Missão 1970. In 26 chapters he gathered all that
could be found related to Don Bosco or the Salesians in China. The most valuable documents are those
regarding the negotiations for the arrival of the Salesians in Macao, and the strenuous beginnings of the
Salesian House there.
To Kirschner we owe the fact that he made available the early documents related to the negotiations of the
Salesian leaders (Rua, Cogliolo, etc.) with the Portuguese side, the role of the nuncio in Lisbon, the
strenuous life of the early Salesians in Macao and some rare photographs. One thing that jars is that there
is no critical apparatus, no bibliography, no attempt to produce any kind of analysis and documents are
often unconnected and are systematically given in the Portuguese language with no reference as to their
origin or source.
23 P. POMATI, Don Bosco in Cina. Prima Parte: Alle porte della Cina 1906-1918, in AIC Cronache.
24 His is a 95pp. Contributo alla storia della missione salesiana della diocesi di Shiuchow, specialmente del distretto di
Lokchong, sotto la maschera della liberazione dei rossi AD 1950-51, which he presented to Fr. R. Ziggiotti on 14 Mar 1955.
With a note: Con preghiera di non pubblicare in questo periodo di emergenza. AIC, Shiuchow II.
25 One such document is the manuscript 1.Erinnerungen aus meìnem Leben oder vom Tyroler-Naz zum Missionsbischof 1883-
19xx, Heft 1 Erste Niederschrift 1945: Hosai. 21.VII.1945 pp. 1-241; Heft 2, pp. 244-273 + 2pp addenda. ASC 844.
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Mario Rassiga, arrived in China in 1924 and died in HK in 1999. After his departure from Mainland
China he was closely connected with the archives, first as Provincial Secretary and Archivist (1959 –
1972), and then as Archivist (1982 – 1987).
Very early, as a cleric, he was assigned to the Vicariate Apostolic of Shiuchow. After the liberation he
worked briefly in the publishing services, and thereafter he succeeded Fr. Clemente Benato as provincial
Secretary and Archivist, a post he kept for over 28 years. In this post he continued the methodical work of
archival conservation and classification started earlier on by his predecessor. His is a document by
document card retrieval catalogue now surpassed by informatics systems. He had a thorough knowledge
of sources in his archives, and so he produced not only several major works on the history of Salesian
work in China, the most valuable being his Breve cenno storico dell’ opera salesiana in Cina, 3 voll., 8
tomi, Hong Kong 1975 [testo poligrafato], but also numerous other writings, many of them small
biographies of deceased Salesians of the China Province. The Breve cenno storico26 is a massive work
and is the most complete research to date based on the archival material from the AIC. That’s both its
strength and weakness!
Reading Rassiga’s work one has the impression of something written in the mold of Eugenio Ceria’s
Annali or volumes 11-19 of the Memorie Biografiche: readable, reasonably well organized stuff, stringed
together by abundant documentary evidence and the personal knowledge of the author.27 The account
evolves smoothly, credible and a pleasure to read. Many documents are reproduced in full. Like all
prevalently narrative history, Rassiga’s subject matter is organized chronologically; it is focused on one
coherent story; to achieve this he abounds on the descriptive ad disregards the analytical. Not too many
questions are asked; no effort is made to get a deeper and better comprehension. It is concerned with
people and events, not abstract circumstances or conclusions; and it deals with the particular and specific
rather than the collective and statistical. 28
But it is a mere internal, one-faceted, mainly an inward look at the institution. As a result the narrative
falls flat: it is one dimensional. It would have been more efficient if it was done with critical rigor, if
questions were asked, if documents had been compared and cross-examined with documents from
different archival sources. One would wish to have, in fact, a multi-faceted and contextualized story,
supported by a more critical and analytical approach that goes beyond the document, and addresses the
social environment in which people lived, travelled and worked. Narrative history has its own way of
representing reality through fact, it is particularly apt at telling us what was going on inside people's
heads in the past, and what it was like to live in the past, but fails to reach a breadth and depth of
understanding that only an a good analysis can reach. That is the way people wrote in the time of Don
Ceria: it may be called a diligent but pre-scientific approach to historiography.
26 An abridged version is his L’opera salesiana in Cina: cenno storico, Voll. I-III, 1906-1945, Aberdeen Technical School, Hong
Kong 1973-75, pp. 350.
27 On Ceria’s historiography, cfr.FRANCIS DESRAMAUT, Come hanno lavorato gli autori delle Memorie biografiche, in MARIO
MIDALI (Ed.) Don Bosco nella Storia, Atti del 1 Congresso Internazionale di Studi su Don Bosco (Università Pontificia
Salesiana – Roma, 16-20 gennaio 1989), LAS –Roma 1989, pp. 37-65.
28 Freely quoted from LAWRENCE STONE, Historiography, 1979 (quote)
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Fifth corpus29
People of our generation, who have no direct knowledge and only a superficial understanding of the
events leading to the origins and development of the Salesian work in China, rightly seek better
documented accounts that fill that void. As Pietro Stella put it, “every Order or Congregation, at a given
point of its development, feels the exigency of setting its history on a critical foundation, especially as
regards its origins”.30 The fifth corpus of research materials belongs to that mold. But (what we might
call a more) scientific or critical type of historiography did not come to the China Province by chance.
Remotely, it has been the fruit of the scientific activities of the Salesian Historical Institute and – more
directly - of the initiatives of ACSSA. The first research quoted in this section - The first twenty years of
the Orfanato of Macao - was published in 1996 on the occasion of the symposium on Insediamenti e
iniziative salesiane dopo Don Bosco held in Rome the previous year. The several papers that followed
were mainly prepared for regional symposia organized by ACSSA.
Since its inception in late 1981, the Salesian Historical Institute and the systematic editorial activities it
launched, helped develop a new mentality, a new ideological and methodological approach to Salesian
historiography. What the Congregation wished to achieve, and the program the scholars embarked on,
effectively reached the whole Salesian world through the establishment of ACSSA, born in October 1996,
thereby providing formation, methodological tools and opportunities to a growing group of “cultori di
storia Salesiana”, history enthusiasts who might not have received formal training.31
As one can see in the case of Pietro Stella, essentially a self-made historian,32 formal training though
desirable is not indispensable. What are essential, though, are passion and some degree of dexterity in
29 SOCOL, CARLO. The first twenty years of the Orfanato of Macao between ideal and reality (1906-1926), in FR. MOTTO,
Insediamenti e iniziative salesiane dopo Don Bosco. Saggi di storiografia, Roma LAS 1996, pp. 275-325. ID. “Una istituzione
che si occupa della classe operaio”. La Escola de Artes e Oficios di Macao nel suo primo ventennio (1906-1926), in FR.
MOTTO (Ed.), L’Opera Salesiana dal 1880 al 1922, II, Esperienze particolari in Europa, Africa, Asia, Roma, LAS 2001, pp.
413-438. ID. The history of Salesian education in China, in XU XIAOZHOU and R. GIANNATELLI (Ed.), Educational
innovation: perspectives of internationalization, Hangzhou, Zhejiang University Press 2006, pp. 26-35. ID. The Birth of the
China Province and the Expansion of the Salesian Work in East Asia (1926-1927), in IMPELIDO NESTOR (ed.), The
Beginnings of Salesian Presence in East Asia, ACSSA Varia 2, Don Bosco Press, Makati, 2006, pp.47-61. ID. The Salesians of
Don Bosco, In Ha L. - Taveirne P. (ed.), History of Catholic Religious Orders and Missionary Congregations in Hong Kong,
vol.2, Centre for Catholic Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2009, pp. 540-618. ID, The Implantation
of the Salesian Charism in China (1906-1936): Ideals, Challenges, Answers and Results, in Kapplikunnel M. (ed.), The
Implantation of the Salesian Charism in Asia Ideals, Challenges, Answers and Results, ACSSA Varia 7, Kristu Jyoti Publications,
Bangalore, 2009, pp. 123-154. ID, Situation Report: SDB Chinese Province, in Evangelization and Interreligous Dialogue XI,
Salesiani – Dicastero per le Missioni, Roma, 1994, pp. 21-23. ID, Don Bosco’s missionary call and China, in Ricerche Storiche
Salesiane, XXV-2, Lug-Dic 2006, pp. 215-294. FRANCESCO CASELLA, Profilo biografico storico-documentario di Mons. Michele
Arduino ultimo vescovo di Shiuchow, Roma 2000. ANJOS AMADOR, The First Salesians in East Timor: 1927-1929, in
IMPELIDO NESTOR (ed.), The Beginnings of Salesian Presence in East Asia, ACSSA Varia 2, Don Bosco Press, Makati, 2006,
pp.111-137. FERRERO MICHELE and SOCOL CARLO, The Salesian educative work in Macau 1906-1926: the “Escola de
Artes e Oficios”, Paper delivered at The Third International Conference on Macaology ─The Intellectual Construction and
Academic Development in a Global Perspective: with Macaology as an Example, Beijing 15-16 Nov 2012, and soon to be
published.
30 Quoted in PIETRO BRAIDO, Pietro Stella, Storico professionale, Maestro di storiografia di Don Bosco e Salesiana, in RSS 51
(6), p.183
31 STANISLAW ZIMNIAK, Cenni storici sull’Associazione Cultori di Storia Salesiana (ACSSA) e sulle sue realizzazioni, in RSS 51
(2008) 157-162.
32 BRAIDO, Pietro Stella cit. p. 186.
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researching, handling, questioning, comparing and contextualizing relevant documents, and all this can be
learnt by doing.
Several authors have written authoritatively about Salesian work in China: Francesco Casella on Mons.
Michele Arduino, Amador Anjos on the early stages in East Timor, Michele Ferrero on Educative work in
Macao, and Carlo Socol. The latter has published mainly articles: on Don Bosco and China, the
beginnings of Salesian work in Macao and Hong Kong, both from the institutional point of view and of
their educative and social impact; the expansion in the region and inside China, a study on the
inculturation of the Salesian charism, and one on the classification and preservation of archival
memory.33As already mentioned, these articles were mainly written for the various ACSSA meetings held
in and outside the EAO Region.
What is the new historiography offering that previously was not offered, or not offered enough?
Sources. The most obvious things one finds are the many more archival sources from different archives
used, allowing for a sufficient degree of comparison and cross checks.
Methodology. Documents are analyzed and interpreted with a scientific and multi-disciplinary approach,
and not simply reproduced. Questions are posed and contextualized conclusions are drawn by utilizing a
variety of sources. Attention is given not only to people and events, but to the significance and relevance
of a presence and the work it carried out.
Contextualization. Supplementary information is offered that is not found in institutional archives. The
background and the context are the framework within which accounts are drawn up.
Critical apparatus. A critical apparatus is in place throughout and an acceptable bibliography provided
for support and further research.
Conclusions (to be further elaborated)
1. The first and most obvious thing to be done is to draw up a list of all publications, a complete
bibliography. It is good to know what you have there, and all what has been written is useful for
further historical research.
2. Appreciate good history, but know how to draw valuable information from other works as well by
learning to ask the right questions from them, and think what else you would like to know that
you did not find in them.
3. Be convinced that our generation needs to know, but even more needs to have a deep
understanding of its past, origins and developments, and so needs good, well researched and
written history. In order to be able to map our way forward it is vital to know where we came
from and how we developed.
4. Acquire the tools to write competently. Involve young confreres at an early stage: competence
develops gradually by acquiring enough knowledge and skills.
5. Put that competence to work: prepare one good article for every Seminar organized by the
ACSSA.
6. Reads lots of Salesian history: understanding Don Bosco and the dynamics of how his work
developed and expanded is the basis for spiritual development and dynamism.
Hangzhou-Hong Kong-Cebu November 2013
33 MANUEL ROMERO TALLAFIGO – CARLO SOCOL, Classification and preservation of archival memory, report delivered at the
“Scripta volant. Saving our Cultural Heritage", an All Asia Seminar on Salesian Archival Documentation, The Citadel, Chennai,
19-22 December 2001
14