Digital Documentation of the China Mongghul Ha Clan Oral History

Abstract

This paper will describe the author’s project documenting the Mongghul Ha clan oral history tradition in Qinghai and Gansu provinces, China, by focusing on the purposes, methods and approaches to documentation. Reactions and attitudes towards, and views of, the project on the part of local community members of different age groups will be emphasized. I will present an overview of approaches to the preservation of the collected materials in the form of DVDs, an online database and traditional academic outputs (e.g., transcription, translation, and research papers), as well as the redistribution of the digitised materials back to the community and online. Finally, the possible impacts of the return of the materials to the local communities of the Ha clan in Qinghai and Gansu will be discussed.