In 1978 James Thornton participated in an adult educators’ visit to the People’s Republic of China. Organized by UBC’s Adult Education Department and the Centre for Continuing Studies, the objective of the tour was to examine how the newly-formed Chinese Government after the fall of the “Gang of Four” would use forms of formal and informal adult education programs and professional training initiatives to repair China’s social fabric and revitalize economic structures devastated by the “cultural revolution”. Shortly after the UBC group arrived in Shanghai in the summer of 1978, they were joined by a group from the University of Alberta and then continued on a three-week tour of China.

This series includes 746 slides taken during the trip, a group photograph and a short description of the tour from Thornton’s autobiography. The slides have been removed from their original boxes and transferred into slide sleeves and put into file folders. The original descriptions from the slide boxes have been transferred to the file descriptions.