The video above provides an excellent foundational understanding of how to search for Chinese language resources effectively.
Searching with Chinese characters is a good starting point if you are unfamiliar with Library of Congress (LC) romanization rules (i.e., Pinyin) or you are searching for a known title. However, generally, searching the UAL Catalogue with pinyin remains the most effective way to find Chinese-language material.
For a complete list of pinyin romanization rules, please see the resources linked below. Please keep in mind the following general rules:
For a more comprehensive search, consider using a combination of:
Search tools (catalogues & databases) may search for original language and/or transliteration and/or translations. The results depend on what information (metadata) exists for each item. The UAL Catalogue can generally map simplified to traditional characters, and vice-versa. While there are specific rules regarding spacing in pinyin and Wade-Giles, consider trying variations in how you join characters as records may contain different information.
Additional resources:
Open Books Hong Kong Pilot Project
A collection of nine Chinese books published by three university presses, covering history, philosophy, religion, law, anthropology, gender studies and other fields of humanities and social sciences.
More will be added in the coming months.
English newspaper databases with Chinese content:
China-specific or in Chinese
Published in Shanghai from April 1872 to May 1949, the Chinese daily newspaper Shen Bao preserves the history of the transition of China from late Qing to the republican era. This full text database provides both digitized text and the corresponding newspaper images.
DVD / Blu-Ray / VHS
Use terms like "feature films" or "television programs" combined with the country name (e.g. China, Taiwan, Hong Kong).
Limit results by searching in the subject field (or using DE in ebsco databases).
Notes
Streaming Video
See the Audio & Video subject guide for a variety of streaming film and video sources
We have hundreds of Chinese dictionaries (from simple language learning to thematic to historical) in Chinese-only, Chinese to English, English to Chinese, both C-E and E-C, as well Chinese to other languages. They are catagorised by many subject headings and many call number ranges. Here are some ways to find them.
A Student’s Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese Online (Brill online) - Chinese character dictionary
China Encyclopedic Reference (Brill online). 4 titles: Brill's Encyclopedia of China Online; Ancient and Early Medieval Chinese Literature; Biographical dictionary of the Qin, Former Han and Xin Periods (221 BC - AD 24); Biographical dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdomes (23-220 AD)
中国大百科全书. The Encyclopedia of China (Zhongguo Da Baike Quan Shu). Largest and most authoritative Chinese-language encyclopedia. It does reflect official Chinese government positions on all politically sensitive topics but most articles are objective, detailed, and reflect the current state of research. (free online access).
NOTE: select Databases --> university of alberta library in left-side menu (includes all UAlberta and NEOS library holdings).
Chinese-English, English-Chinese
("Chinese language" AND (Dictionar* OR "terms and phrases" OR glossar*) AND English) OR "English language" AND (Dictionar* OR "terms and phrases" OR glossar*) AND Chinese [in subject terms]
Dictionaries of Chinese, in Chinese
All China-related dictionaries in UAlberta and NEOS libraries (almost).
To limit above results further: