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:
NOTE: See "EASIA general resources" tab for other interdisciplinary sources with China/Chinese content.
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.
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).
Great Chinese Dictionary and Kangxi Dictionary Online versions of Great Chinese Dictionary (汉语大词典, 漢語大詞典), Great Chinese Dictionary Revision, and Kangxi Dictionary(康熙字典). The Great Chinese Dictionary is an authoritative historical dictionary (similar to the OED for English). The Kangxi Dictionary, dated 1716, is a compendium of standard characters from the Kangxi period.
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
To limit above results further:
Gateway to Chinese Grammar Lessons
Compiled by University of Texas
Arch Chinese
A Chinese learning system crafted by Chinese teachers in the United States for Mandarin Chinese language learners at K-12 schools and universities
Learn Chinese with Litao
Litao Chinese is a Youtube channel that specializes in teaching Mandarin Chinese as a foreign language. Our mission is to provide learnable, systematic and high-quality online Chinese courses
Yellowbridge
An online Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionary
Course Era - Chinese for Beginners
An ABC Chinese course for beginners from Peking University. It provides an introduction to Mandarin phonetics and essential daily expressions, enabling learners to achieve a fundamental understanding and confidently engage in basic conversations.
For books and ebooks available at the library, please search for
"Chinese language -- Textbooks".
Omniglot - Cantonese
An online language encyclopedia that includes history of the Cantonese language, written characters and Romanized script, phrases and numbers.
Learn Cantonese!
Contains information for learning colloquial Cantonese (Yue Chinese) as it is spoken by today's youth in Hong Kong and in overseas communities such as Canada, the United States and Australia.
Jyutping Cantonese Romanisation Scheme
Jyutping is a new Cantonese romanization system which has many advantages. It is multifunctional, systematic, user-friendly, compatible with all possible modern Cantonese sounds, and solely based on alphanumeric characters without any diacritics and strange symbols.
Cantonese (Toishan) Basic Course
A course written by Aaron from the Four Counties Blog. The lessons include tones and vowels, consonants, adverbs and much more
Taishanese/Toisanese Online Word Dictionary
A Taishanese online word dictionary with audio
Learn Cantonese - Story Learning
Contains a guide for absolute beginners