The topic of the central government’s administration in Tibet during the Republican era is understudied. Academic research in this area tends to focus on the Tibet Office and other administrative institutions, as well as high-level officials such as Kong Qingzong, neglecting the individual staff members and lower-level officers stationed in Tibet during this period. Based on the newly discovered ‘Lhasa Diary’ by Dai Xinsan (1907‒1997), an officer at the Tibet Office, this research is a case study of the detailed experiences of the Chinese officers stationed in Tibet during the Republican period, revealing the exchanges and intermingling of various ethnic groups in Tibet at that time, and the dynamics in the relationship between the National Government and the local government of Tibet.

Professor Wang Chuan is the Vice President of Sichuan Normal University and the Dean of the College of Traditional Chinese Culture, Sichuan Normal University. Professor Wang is also the Vice President of the Chinese Society of Ethnic History and the Director of the Bashu Culture Research Centre, one of the Research Bases of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education.