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The Chinese Diary Collection contains 850 volumes of hardbound and softbound diaries, dating from 1930s to 1980s. Some volumes are filled with writing from cover to cover; some, partially filled; and some, with brief inscriptions. It includes 81 volumes by different individuals of Republican Period (1912-1949) and 95 small volumes penned by an engineer, with scientific data and personal contents. The contents recorded in the dairies are significant, for instance, a set of 20 work diaries by a mid-rank public security cadre member during and after the Cultural Revolution offers detailed history of public security operations for two decades. A set of 10 work diaries by an officer working in a ministry of the State Council in the 1980s documented the political and daily lives before and after the Tiananmen Massacre in association with the students' pro-democracy movement.

The most substantial part of the collection is the extensive correspondence between Nien Cheng and June Rose Garrott (originals have been scanned onto discs). There are letters; WWW print-outs; email print-outs; artwork; audio cassettes; VHS tapes; DVDs; CDs; photographs; a scroll; a fan; printed ephemera; books; and a bust of Lao She.