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Song (Feiqing) papers
2013C4  
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  • Access
  • Use
  • Acquisition Information
  • Preferred Citation
  • Biographical Note
  • Scope and Content of Collection

  • Title: Song Feiqing (宋棐卿) papers
    Date (inclusive): 1926-2013
    Collection Number: 2013C4
    Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
    Language of Material: Chinese and English
    Physical Description: 13 manuscript boxes, 2 oversize boxes, 1 motion picture film reel, 1 DVD (8.4 Linear Feet)
    Abstract: Correspondence, writings, legal and financial records, printed matter, motion picture film, and audiovisual material relating to operations of the Oriental Corporation in Tianjin, China, and subsequently in Hong Kong.
    Creator: Song, Feiqing, 1898-1955
    Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives

    Access

    The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

    Use

    For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Acquisition Information

    Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 2013, with additional materials acquired in 2017.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Song Feiqing papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

    Biographical Note

    Born in 1898 to a Christian family in Shandong Province, the Chinese businessman Song Feiqing is best known for his role in modern China's industrialization and for promoting the spirit of entrepreneurship in China. In the early 1920s, Song went to Chicago to study business management at Northwestern University. In 1925, he returned to China and spent the next several years working in his father's business in Tianjin. Seeing that China's industry was lacking entrepreneurship, especially in the textile market where foreign countries were profiting at China's expense, in 1932 Song established the Oriental Corporation (Dongya) in Tianjin. That corporation became China's first textile company to use Chinese wool to produce its yarn and to sell its products both domestically and internationally. By the 1940s, the corporation had become the largest yarn production company in China, having garnered more than 80 percent of the domestic Chinese market.
    Song's entrepreneurship transformed the business environment in modern China. In addition, Song brought his religious beliefs into his management style and enterprise culture, as well as forming a social communication network that relied on the Christian spirit to serve his entrepreneurial purposes. After the Chinese Communists won the civil war and established the People's Republic in 1949, Song struggled to keep his enterprises intact but was unable to do so. In 1950, he moved his company to Hong Kong and later immigrated to Argentina. He died in Buenos Aires in 1955.

    Scope and Content of Collection

    The papers of Song Feiqing include correspondence, writings, legal and financial records, printed matter, motion picture film, and audiovisual material relating to the operations of the Oriental Corporation in Tianjin, China, and then in Hong Kong, including what part Christian beliefs played in Song's management practices. The papers also provide a rare glimpse into the formation of industrialization and entrepreneurship in China's recent past.
    An increment received in 2017 contains documents related to Song Feiqing's life and legacy collected by his children, including personal correspondence, writings, clippings, photographs, and Oriental Corporation records.

    Subjects and Indexing Terms

    Business enterprises -- China
    Business enterprises -- China -- Hong Kong
    Oriental Corporation