English Language Databases and Collections
Collections of documents and primary materials:
- China StudiesCross-search 3 Adam Mathew collections of primary sources on China (China Trade Politics Culture; China, America, and Pacific; Foreign Office files for China). Mainly in English from diplomats, tourists, missionaries, business people. Rare books, pamphlets, manuscripts, diaries, newspapers, periodicals, art, illustrations, photographs, maps.
- China : Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980Primary sources on Modern China and West from 1793-1980 from School of Oriental and African Studies and British Library (Adam Mathew)
- China, America and the PacificArchival material on trading/cultural relationships between China, America, Pacific. 18th to 20th centuries. Manuscript sources, rare printed texts, visual images, objects, maps (Adam Mathew)
- Foreign Office Files for China - 1919-1980All British Foreign Office files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan between 1919 and 1980 from National Archives UK (Archives Direct, Adam Mathew)
Chinese Language Databases
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.
Newspapers
English newspaper databases with Chinese content:
China-specific or in Chinese
- Shen Bao
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.
- Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowProQuest Historical Newspapers includes the Globe and Mail, Guardian and The Observer, New York Times, Times of India, Toronto Star, Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, & the "Chinese Newspapers Collection".
- Late Qing and Republican-Era Chinese NewspapersThis is an open access collection hosted on the East View Platform. The collection, ultimately comprising 500,000 pages from hundreds of titles published in China between 1912 and 1949, is hosted on East View's GPA platform with robust search functionality for multi-language content.
- Chinese Times/ 大漢公報 (Canada, Vancouver)Published in Vancouver daily from 1914 to 1992; it covered both local information and news about China and Asia generally. Totaling about 250,000 pages, this collection covers many important moments in the history of Vancouver’s Chinese community, from early immigration struggles to the establishment of a thriving home base near Vancouver’s downtown. As the longest-running newspaper in the largest Chinese community in Canada, the Chinese Times was uniquely situated to reflect the adaptation of immigrants to Canada, their participation in World War I and II, their struggle against the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1923 (finally repealed in 1947), the hardships of the Depression and ongoing racism, as well as the organizational power of the Chinese community to work together in these circumstances.
Audio-visual (music, films, documentaries, etc)
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).
- "feature films" AND china
- "television programs" AND "hong kong"
- DE "Feature films" AND Taiwan
Notes
- DVD region code: Most are Region 1 (Canada and USA). Discs with other region codes require multi-region DVD player.
- Subtitles: Many have English subtitles - but not all
Streaming Video
See the Audio & Video subject guide for a variety of streaming film and video sources
Dictionaries / Enclyclopedias
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.
Quick e-access
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 DictionaryOnline 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.
Shelf browsing:
- Chinese language is PL1001-3208
- Many dictionaries clustered in PL (particularly PL 679)
- Thematic dictionaries may be in relevant areas (e.g. DS 700-800 Chinese history, NA for architecture, HF for business, GV for sports/recreation, etc)
Comprehensive search
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).
- Subject terms only search (about 1300 results):
- All fields search (about 2000 results):
To limit above results further:
- Add more AND terms: e.g. idioms, etymology, slang, "ancient chinese", dialects, translat*
Free (out of our control, may contain ads)
- Zhongwen: Chinese Popup Dictionary (chrome extension)Chinese to English. Hover over a word and a dictionary entry popup appears.
Searching non-roman scripts (e.g. Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean)
Search tools (catalogues & databases) may search for original language and/or transliteration and/or translations. The results depend on what metadata exists for each item so try a variety of methods and variations. Result lists don't necessarily show the original language until you click into the item record.
Original language searching:
- Cut-and-paste (e.g. from internet, bibliography, etc.)
- Add input languages to your keyboard language bar
Transliteration searching.
There are many schemes to "transliterate" different languages into the "roman" alphabet so trying several variations is important. Long vowels are the biggest challenge (e.g. o, ou, oo, ō, oh). Search engines often ignore accents and macrons.
The Library of Congress Romanization tables (see below) are commonly used in library catalogues but older items may use an older scheme. Just some examples: Japanese - revised Hepburn, nihon-shiki, kunrei-shiki; Chinese - Wade-Giles, pinyin; Korean - Revised Romanization of Korean (RR), McCune-Reischauer (MR), Yale, ISO/TR 11941.
