Dale R. Johnson Papers, ca. 1931-1998, undated | Oberlin College Archives

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series I. Biographical, undated

Contained in this series are Dale Johnson’s Curriculum Vitae and other information on his career as a professor of Chinese at Oberlin College.

Series II. Clippings, 1957, 1964, 1972-73, 1980-81, 1983-86, 1998, undated

This series contains an extensive collection of newspaper clippings regarding the Buddhist temple and its history. It also contains articles by and about Dale Johnson, which discuss Chinese and American culture, weaving, and Johnson’s collection of buttons depicting Mao Tse-Tung.

Series III. Correspondence, 1962, 1973, 1981-82, 1998

This series consists of letters regarding the condition and ownership of the Buddhist temple. Correspondents include Johnson and representatives of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, the First Kalmuk Budhist [sic] Temple, Indiana University, and Neighborhood Redevelopment Assistance of Chicago.

Series IV. Miscellaneous, 1943, ca. 1975, 1980, 1982, 1998, undated

This series notably contains a timeline of the Buddhist temple’s history, copies of legal documents concerning the temple, and a printout of a website describing the temple’s partial restoration in Stockholm in the 1990s.

Series V. Printed Matter and Postcards, ca. 1931-33, undated

This series contains additional materials relating to the Buddhist temple, including postcards, documents on the construction of the temple in English and Chinese, a restaurant menu, a stereoscope photograph, and a 1932 book on the temple and Buddhism by Sven Hedin.

Series VI. Writings, 1933, 1984, undated

Series VI consists of four documents, three of which are histories of the Buddhist temple. These are “American Saga of a Chinese Temple” by Dale Johnson, “The Chinese Lama Temple: The Golden Pavilion of Jehol” by Barbara Lipton, and “The Chinese Temple of Oberlin” by Victoria L. Getis. The series also contains photocopies of the first two chapters of the book Jehol: City of Emperors by Sven Hedin.

Dale R. Johnson was born on December 24, 1933, in Heber City, Utah. Following World War II, he lived in Long Beach, California where he graduated from the David Starr Jordan High School in 1952. He went on to attend the University of Utah and in 1959 graduated with a Bachelor’s in Music (piano performance and composition).

Drafted out of his senior year at Utah, Dale Johnson served two years (1957-58) in the military as a member of the 7th United States Army in Seoul, Korea. During this time he studied Korean music with Korea’s most distinguished musician, Hwang Byonggi. Johnson was Mr. Hwang’s first foreign student, and the first foreigner to perform with members of the Royal Court Orchestra in a Seoul radio broadcast in 1958. In addition to music, Johnson also studied the Korean language during his military tour of duty in Seoul.

Dale R. Johnson was accepted with a modest scholarship at the University of Michigan, School of Music in 1960, but discovered that this scholarship was insufficient for him to continue school. He applied for and was awarded an NDEA fellowship to study Chinese. Johnson was eligible for the fellowship due to the number of Chinese characters he had learned during his Korean language study in Seoul. At the University of Michigan, Johnson was a student of Prof. James I. Crump, with whom he maintained a life-long close relationship.

In 1968, Johnson joined the faculty of Oberlin College.  A year later, he was named Chair of East Asian Studies at Oberlin College. Under his chairmanship East Asian Studies was created as a department, and Chinese was approved as a major. When he started teaching at Oberlin, the Asian curriculum consisted of courses in Chinese language, Chinese literature, Chinese history, and courses in Asian religions. Later more faculty members were added in Government and Art, and language offerings were expanded to include the Japanese language. Courses in Asian sociology were offered from time to time, but no permanent faculty was ever secured. By the mid-1970s the East Asian program at Oberlin was unequalled at any other institution of comparable size. Government grants to sustain and expand the program were awarded to Oberlin over several of the early years.

Dale Johnson resigned his professorship at Oberlin in 1988 after five difficult years in a commuting marriage between Ohio and northern California. He accepted a teaching position at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1988, where he concluded his teaching career and retired in 1993.

Sources Consulted

Biographical sketch provided by Dale Johnson and modified by Archives staff.