Ge Kunhua (Ko K'un-hua) & MJ

On Jul 8, 1:58 am, Cofa Tsui <cofat....RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
> [Snip]
> 2. A message mentioning one (GE Kunhua), said to be the first
> person to have introduced mahjong to the U.S., sometime after 1880.
> Surprised! That person's not Babcock!http://ks.cn.yahoo.com/question/1406110817270.html
>
> [The message does not mention the exact year GE had introduced the
> game to the U.S. The message states: "GE Kunhua... worked in the U.S.
> Embassy in Shanghai for two years. He moved to Ningbo in 1865, worked
> at the British Embassy for as long as 15 years, was very close with
> Ningbo's famous persons like CHEN Yumen, CHEN Li, XU Shidong and so
> on, was skillful in pai games, and was good at recitation.
>
> Later on GE moved to America to teach at Harvard University. He was
> the first professor of Chinese nationality in America. In the
> beginning he promoted mahjong among the intellectual level of
> Americans. Mahjong thus started spreading over from Harvard..."]
> [Snip]

Sorry to revive such an old post but, since nobody had posted any
follow-up on this point, I thought that it may have been worthwhile to
make inquiries.

I checked with Harvard University to see if Ge Kunhua (Ko K'un-hua),
who taught there beginning in 1879, had left any information on MJ (or
any pai games). Unfortunately, the following is the reply by the
Chinese Bibliographer at the Harvard-Yenching Library reference desk:

"Zhang Hongsheng is a professor from Nanjing University and Harvard-
Yenching visiting scholar in 1996-1997. He collected all the
materials he can find about Ge Kunhua: Ge's books in Yenching Library,
a booklet in Widener Library, letters, contract, articles on
newspapers, etc. Anyone can not find anything new if he does not work
so hard for so long time. I think this book of Zhang Hongsheng is the
best beginning for the study of Ge Kunhua. I can not find anything
about mahjong in this book.
Ma Xiaohe"

And

"Some materials in Zhang Hongsheng's book are in English: Introduction
for the booklet by Ge Kunhua, some of the poems and notes, letters,
agreement, newspaper articles. Some of them are already translated
into Chinese by Zhang Hongsheng. If you want to check these English
materials, Zhang's book will give you a best beginning.
Ma Xiaohe"

Zhang's research is in the following book for anyone interested in
obtaining it:
Ge Kunhua ji : Zhong Mei wen hua jiao liu de xian qu / Zhang Hongsheng
bian zhu.
Published : Nanjing Shi : Jiangsu gu ji chu ban she, 2000.

Since my ability to read Chinese is very limited, I did not obtain the
book to check for information on games (pai), or if Chen Yumen was
mentioned, etc. It seems a shame that Ge (Ko) did not record his
knowledge about MJ while at Harvard. Note also that I did not search
for possible writings by co-faculty, so if Ge (Ko) taught the game to
colleagues, there is still some possibility one of them may have
written something.

Dan

On Sep 24, 6:02?pm, pa....RemoveThis@email.unc.edu wrote:
> On Jul 8, 1:58 am, Cofa Tsui <cofat....RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > [Snip]
> > 2. A message mentioning one (GE Kunhua), said to be the first
> > person to have introduced mahjong to the U.S., sometime after 1880.
> > Surprised! That person's not Babcock!http://ks.cn.yahoo.com/question/1406110817270.html
>
> > [The message does not mention the exact year GE had introduced the
> > game to the U.S. The message states: "GE Kunhua... worked in the U.S.
> > Embassy in Shanghai for two years. He moved to Ningbo in 1865, worked
> > at the British Embassy for as long as 15 years, was very close with
> > Ningbo's famous persons like CHEN Yumen, CHEN Li, XU Shidong and so
> > on, was skillful in pai games, and was good at recitation.
>
> > Later on GE moved to America to teach at Harvard University. He was
> > the first professor of Chinese nationality in America. In the
> > beginning he promoted mahjong among the intellectual level of
> > Americans. Mahjong thus started spreading over from Harvard..."]
> > [Snip]
>
> Sorry to revive such an old post but, since nobody had posted any
> follow-up on this point, I thought that it may have been worthwhile to
> make inquiries.
>
> I checked with Harvard University to see if Ge Kunhua (Ko K'un-hua),
> who taught there beginning in 1879, had left any information on MJ (or
> any pai games). Unfortunately, the following is the reply by the
> Chinese Bibliographer at the Harvard-Yenching Library reference desk:
>
> "Zhang Hongsheng is a professor from Nanjing University and Harvard-
> Yenching visiting scholar in 1996-1997. He collected all the
> materials he can find about Ge Kunhua: Ge's books in Yenching Library,
> a booklet in Widener Library, letters, contract, articles on
> newspapers, etc. Anyone can not find anything new if he does not work
> so hard for so long time. I think this book of Zhang Hongsheng is the
> best beginning for the study of Ge Kunhua. I can not find anything
> about mahjong in this book.
> Ma Xiaohe"
>
> And
>
> "Some materials in Zhang Hongsheng's book are in English: Introduction
> for the booklet by Ge Kunhua, some of the poems and notes, letters,
> agreement, newspaper articles. Some of them are already translated
> into Chinese by Zhang Hongsheng. If you want to check these English
> materials, Zhang's book will give you a best beginning.
> Ma Xiaohe"
>
> Zhang's research is in the following book for anyone interested in
> obtaining it:
> Ge Kunhua ji : Zhong Mei wen hua jiao liu de xian qu / Zhang Hongsheng
> bian zhu.
> Published : Nanjing Shi : Jiangsu gu ji chu ban she, 2000.
>
> Since my ability to read Chinese is very limited, I did not obtain the
> book to check for information on games (pai), or if Chen Yumen was
> mentioned, etc. It seems a shame that Ge (Ko) did not record his
> knowledge about MJ while at Harvard. Note also that I did not search
> for possible writings by co-faculty, so if Ge (Ko) taught the game to
> colleagues, there is still some possibility one of them may have
> written something.
>
> Dan- Hide quoted text -

Thanks Dan. I couldn't find my file on him - damn!

Cheers