Updates for October 2019

31 October 2019

Updates to the Pipe Organ in China Project Website for October 2019:

Although there are no new installations to report this month, there are several updates.

1. New photos have been added to PEK2004a and SHA1918 with additional comments on the respective pages.
2. A forthcoming blog post from Prof. Urrows will deal with a previously unremarked published, corroborating source for the sorry story of SHA1934a and its destruction in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution.
3. On a recent visit to Suzhou and Shanghai, Prof. Urrows met with Fr. Anthony Chen, Director of the Guangqi Research Center and Press (named for Paul Xu Guangqi (徐光啟, 1562-1633), friend of Matteo Ricci and an early Roman Catholic convert.) Zikawei Cathedral was visited, looking very nice after its recent renovation, and Prof. Urrows and Fr. Chen made a trip to the Minor Basilica of Shesan, outside of Shanghai. There is no organ there, but there is a loft clearly intended to house an instrument. Fr. Anthony was very interested to learn of the Project, and has invited Prof. Urrows to return to lecture next year.

However, nothing is known, according to Fr. Chen, about the organ reported earlier this spring as under design for Zikawei Cathedral. Information on this installation will be posted as it is received.

At the same time, it was depressing to learn that the construction work in the vicinity of Dongjiadu and St. Francis Xavier Church (site of SHA1857, the ‘Bamboo Organ of Tungkadoo’) has been so destabilizing, that in 2016 the church was closed for safety reasons. The local government has ‘promised’ to restore it when the wholesale domicide of the area is done and the new, luxury homes are completed.

One-year views: 10,010.

Pipe organs in the Census: 190