{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/2/context.json","@type":"sc:Manifest","@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/sonomalibrary/iiif/92b1621b-5234-4af4-b6a6-c1901ed97c7f/manifest","label":"felicitas_titus","metadata":[{"label":"City or Town","value":["Santa Rosa"]},{"label":"Geographic Metadata Source","value":["GNIS"]},{"label":"Country","value":["United States"]},{"label":"State or Province","value":["California"]},{"label":"California County","value":["Sonoma"]},{"label":"Street Address","value":"Santa Rosa, California"},{"label":"Latitude","value":"38.4468158"},{"label":"Geocoding Status","value":["Approximate geocoding"]},{"label":"Maps/StreetView","value":"Find Felicitas Titus' Sonoma County connections in <a href=\"https://www.google.com/maps/@38.4468158,-122.7061362,13z\" target=\"_blank\">Google Maps</a>"},{"label":"Map Zoom Level","value":["13"]},{"label":"SC Local Arts Artist ID","value":["felicitas_titus"]},{"label":"Digital Archives Area Group(s)","value":["Local Arts"]},{"label":"Longitude","value":"-122.7061362"},{"label":"Author Birth Date","value":"1925"},{"label":"Author Last Name","value":"Titus"},{"label":"Author Name","value":["Felicitas Titus (1925-)"]},{"label":"Author First Name, MI","value":"Felicitas"},{"label":"Search Author in WorldCat","value":"Search for Felicitas Titus's author profile in <a href=\"https://worldcat.org/identities/find?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:identity&rft.namelast=Titus&rft.namefirst=Felicitas\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WorldCat Identities</a>"},{"label":"Author Genre(s)","value":["Travel","Autobiography","History"]},{"label":"Author Profile","value":"Felicitas Titus was a long time Bay Area and recently a Sonoma County resident who has been an avid collector of antique postcards of all genres, but with a specific interest in colonial-era China. This fascination stems from the fact that she was born and lived at that time and through those events of a changing civilization. Felicitas was born in 1925 in Hankow, China, a former treaty port on the mid-Yangtze River. She and her brother grew up in a traditional foreign businessman's hong in the midst of their family and many Chinese, and as a girl and young woman, Felicitas was able to observe the old Chinese culture firsthand. Felicitas' father was a leading German businessman in Hankow whose company exported tea, silk cocoons, animal skins and tung oil to Germany and America. Felicitas attended German and English elementary schools within the concessions of Hankow until the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war, when they moved to Shanghai remaining there in the midst of war with the Japanese. Being in this war zone affected her adolescent development deeply, and her parents decided to send her to boarding school in Switzerland in 1939 with the intention of immersing her in French and European culture. Unfortunately, Nazi occupation was just at the doorstep of many European countries. As the political tension mounted and the very real danger for her and her brother became imminent, her parents swiftly brought them home to China in 1941, averting catastrophe by the slightest margin. During this time of her life, she was unable to escape WWII. She experienced both fronts, living within the Japanese occupation of China until the end of the war. She saw the demise of her home, her old colonial way of life, and the ancient culture of China. Felicitas was able to study the Chinese language intensively at Peking University during the war years, which left her fluent in speaking and literacy. In the post-war years, she worked for a philanthropic organization which helped sustain medical outposts within China. Making another narrow escape from the encroaching Communist invasion of Shanghai, she fled to Western China which afforded her the opportunity to explore a bit of the Northwestern provinces. During this time, an incredible opportunity opened up for her to work for General Chennault's Civil Air Transport (CAT) as a translator and secretary. She met many of the former Flying Tigers, pilots who transported goods over the Himalayas from India to China during the war. It was her association with CAT that opened the door for her final flight out of Communist China to freedom in Taipeh. But it also closed the chapter on her life in China in 1950. Her passion always was and still is China of old -- its rich culture, language, and people. After her immigration to the United States in 1952, she graduated with a Master's Degree from UC Berkeley, and then became a college professor of French and German at Laney College in Oakland. She continued to study and keep abreast of Chinese history -- ancient and modern -- finally revisiting her birthplace in 1982. She has gone back several more times, and in 2014, at the age of 89, she climbed the Great Wall for the first time in her life. From the 1980s to 2012, she began to collect antique China postcards, amassing over 3,000 that illustrate the life of the Chinese, the Manchus, and Westerners in China from the 1880s to the 1950s. She has included many of these in her two books: Old Beijing: Postcards from the Imperial City (Tuttle Publishing 2012) and Bygone Shanghai: A Postcard History from 1890 to 1945 (Blurb Publishing 2017). Her autobiography, Vanishing Cultures: A Personal Memoir of China 1925-1952 (Blurb Publishing 2017) is a fascinating recounting of her many memories and experiences growing up in her beloved China. In May 2017, Harvard-Yenching Library (Harvard University) acquired Felicitas' entire postcard collection and significant memorabilia which her family had from her youth in China. (These books are available on amazon.com and blurb.com)"},{"label":"Search SCL Digital Archives for this Author","value":["Titus, Felicitas, 1925-"]},{"label":"Search Author or Book in Library Catalog","value":"Search for works by Felicitas Titus in the <a href=\"https://find.sonomalibrary.org/client/en_US/default/search/results?qu=%22Titus%2C+Felicitas%22&te=&rt=false%7C%7C%7CAuthor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">library catalog</a>"},{"label":"Search Author in Open Library","value":"Search for works by Felicitas Titus in <a href=\"https://openlibrary.org/search/authors?q=Titus+Felicitas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Open Library</a>"},{"label":"Author's Place(s) of Residence","value":["Santa Rosa"]},{"label":"Sort Title","value":"Felicitas Titus (1925-)"},{"label":"Significant Title","value":"Old Beijing : Postcards from the Imperial City"},{"label":"Digital Archives Identifier","value":"felicitas_titus"},{"label":"Digital Archives Collection Name(s)","value":["Sonoma County Local Authors"]},{"label":"Date Added","value":"2018/04/23"},{"label":"Filename","value":"felicitas_titus.jpg"},{"label":"Title","value":"Felicitas Titus (1925-)"},{"label":"Item Type","value":["Text"]},{"label":"Item Format or Genre","value":["Biography files","Bibliographies","Portraits","Photographs"]},{"label":"Search SC Local Arts for this Author or Artist","value":"<a href=\"https://digital.sonomalibrary.org/documents?filter_363=felicitas_titus&applyState=true\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Felicitas Titus (1925-)</a>"},{"label":"Collection(s)","value":["Sonoma County Local Authors"]},{"label":"Author Name (Controlled)","value":["Felicitas Titus (1925-)"]}],"description":"Felicitas Titus (1925-)","sequences":[{"@type":"sc:Sequence","canvases":[{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/sonomalibrary/iiif/92b1621b-5234-4af4-b6a6-c1901ed97c7f/canvas/_1","@type":"sc:Canvas","label":"Felicitas Titus (1925-)","height":450,"width":450,"images":[{"@type":"oa:Annotation","motivation":"sc:painting","resource":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/sonomalibrary/iiif/92b1621b-5234-4af4-b6a6-c1901ed97c7f/full/full/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","format":"image/jpeg","service":{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/context.json","@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/sonomalibrary/iiif/92b1621b-5234-4af4-b6a6-c1901ed97c7f","profile":"http://iiif.io/api/image/2/level2.json","tiles":[{"width":512,"scaleFactors":[1]}]},"height":450,"width":450},"on":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/sonomalibrary/iiif/92b1621b-5234-4af4-b6a6-c1901ed97c7f/canvas/_1","metadata":[]}],"thumbnail":{"@id":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/sonomalibrary/iiif/92b1621b-5234-4af4-b6a6-c1901ed97c7f/full/500,500/0/default.jpg","@type":"dctypes:Image","height":500,"width":500}}]}],"thumbnail":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/sonomalibrary/iiif/92b1621b-5234-4af4-b6a6-c1901ed97c7f/full/500,500/0/default.jpg","logo":"https://iiif.quartexcollections.com/sonomalibrary/iiif/logo"}