The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at Boston College

01/31/2022

The packing and move of the Ricci Institute collections from USF to Boston College began last week. Here are some pictures of the boxes!

01/31/2022

Happy Lunar New Year to all our friends, benefactors, and supporters! 新年快樂萬事如意

Note: this painting of a tiger 竹虎之図 (the second image) is part of the Ricci Institute collections. It is mounted on a scroll and was produced in Korea during the Joseon dynasty (ca. 19th century). Click on the image to see the full painting.😀

01/10/2022

Happy New Year to all our Ricci Institute friends!

We've had our first significant snowfall here in Boston this past Friday—but we are already thinking of summer delights and welcoming our new doctoral and postdoctoral research fellows after a two-year hiatus caused by COVID.

This is a friendly reminder that all applications (including research statements and recommendation letters) are due by this coming Friday, January 14. For more information, see:
https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/centers/Ricci-Institute/fellowships.html

12/24/2021

Dear Friends and Supporters of the Ricci Institute,

聖誕快樂 — 主の御生誕おめでとう御座います— 성탄 축하해요

The morning of Christmas Eve, we received our first snowfall of a couple of centimeters here in Boston. As we approach the manger and marvel at the mystery of Christmas, the birth of the Prince of Peace, "Emmanuel", who became human so that we could become divine, we look back on the year that has passed and are filled with renewed gratitude.

As we settle into our new home here at Boston College, we also recall all our friends on the West Coast as well as our friends and colleagues spread across the world, from Canada and Costa Rica to every part of China, and from London, Paris, Rome, and Tübingen to Seoul, Tokyo, Sydney and Auckland.

Many of you have been in touch via Zoom and email and have asked about when we intend to begin “full operations”, so to speak. As things stand at present, we are hoping to complete the packing of the collections by early February and begin the unpacking in Boston several weeks thereafter. If all goes well, we should be opening our doors to researchers by the end of March or early April. The schedule is also dependent on the completion of renovations (both inside and outside) of our new building, the “Creagh Library” on the Brighton campus of Boston College at 2125 Commonwealth Avenue.

I would like to share with you this year another work of art from our “Celestial Icons” art collection, a watercolor on silk, painted in 1948 in Beijing by the Chinese Catholic artist, 華效先.

Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed Christmas, we look forward to meeting again with old friends and also making new ones in 2022, as we welcome you all to Boston!

On behalf of the whole Ricci Institute,
M. Antoni J. Ucerler, S.J. (Director)

11/25/2021

Wishing all the friends and supporters of the Ricci Institute a Happy Thanksgiving! 感恩節快樂. This year we are particularly grateful, as we begin our new chapter at Boston College. Our new building, the Creagh Library on the Brighton campus of BC, is undergoing renovations until January 2022. We hope to be able to welcome everyone in early spring.

The image of the turkey eagerly making its way to the Ricci Institute along our Commonwealth Avenue driveway (!) 🤓 is from the famous world map 坤輿全圖 (1674) by the Flemish Jesuit in China, Ferdinand Verbiest 南懷仁 (1623–88).

11/23/2021

We would also like to inform you that the Ricci Institute has just posted information today, November 22, 2021, on our new website www.bc.edu/ricci on how to apply for our Summer 2022 Doctoral and Luce Post-doctoral Fellowships.

On account of COVID, it has been two years since we were able to offer these fellowships, and we are extremely pleased that we will be hosting fellows this coming summer at our new home on the Brighton campus of Boston College.

For more information, see:
https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/centers/Ricci-Institute/fellowships.html

The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at Boston College is an internationally renowned research center for the study of Chinese-Western cultural exchange.

11/23/2021

Dear Friends of the Ricci Institute,

We are excited to announce that, as of September 2021, the Ricci Institute has become part of Boston College. We are most grateful to the University of San Francisco, which hosted us for 37 years, and look forward to new synergies and initiatives on the East Coast, as we begin this new chapter at Boston College. Our new website was just launched and can be viewed at www.bc.edu/ricci

The Ricci Institute for Chinese-Western Cultural History at Boston College is an internationally renowned research center for the study of Chinese-Western cultural exchange.

05/20/2021

May 20, 2021. The concluding presentation of the Ricci Scholars’ Study Lecture Series for the 2021 spring semester took place today. The presentation consists of three lectures: Introduction to the Korean Catholic Archives by Dr. Franklin Rausch, Associate Professor from Lander University, The National Archives of Japan: A Resource for the Study of the History of Christianity & Christian Culture in Japan by Dr. M. Antoni J. Ucerler, S.J., Associate Professor from University of San Francisco, and Studying Mission Properties in Modern China Utilizing Archival Records by Hongyan Xiang, Associate Professor from Colorado State University. The presenters shared with the participants rich information of archival sources in their respective studies relating to the study of the history of Christianity in East Asia.

05/13/2021

May 13, 2021. Rev. Anh Q. Tran, S.J., Associate Professor from Santa Clara University presented his lecture at the Ricci Scholars’ Study lecture series. Entitled “The Impact of Catholic Literature on the Faith Identity of Vietnamese Believers in Pre-modern Vietnam (1620-1900)”, Prof. Anh Tran traced through his presentation the impact of catechisms, prayers, devotional works, and lives of the saints produced by Western missionaries and their local assistants on Catholic life, allowing the faith to gradually implant in the soil of Vietnam.

05/06/2021

May 6, 2021. Dr. Javier Takamura from Oxford University is the speaker for the second presentation at the 2021 Spring Semester’s Ricci Scholars’ Study lecture series. The title of his lecture is “Luís Fróis’s História de Japam: New Interpretations.” By focusing on the work by Luís Fróis (1532-1597), a Portuguese Jesuit to Japan, the presentation suggests that there is an underlying theme of ‘opposing cultures’ between Japan and Europe in his writings. Further, Fróis should be considered not only the first historian of the mission, but also the first editor of the history of the Japan mission.