Subject Guides: East Asian Studies: China / Chinese

Searching for Chinese language resources

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:

Generally, individual syllables are romanized separately, except for personal names, geographic location, and certain proper nouns which are written together.
For Chinese personal names, the family name separate from the given name.
- E.g., "李白" as "Li Bai"
For geographical names, join the syllables associated with multi-character geographic names.Separate the names of jurisdictions and topographical features from the geographical names.
- E.g., "海南岛" as "Hainan Dao"

For a more comprehensive search, consider using a combination of:

Pinyin (without the tones)
Wade-Giles (without the tones)
Chinese characters

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.

E.g., “道德经” OR “道德經” OR “daode jing” OR “dao de jing” OR “daodejing” OR “tao te ching” OR “taoteching”

Additional resources:

English Language Databases and Collections

Bibliography of Asian Studies

China Studies
Cross-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, 1793-1980
Primary 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 Pacific
Archival 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 - 1919-1980
All 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:

PressReader This link opens in a new window
Factiva This link opens in a new window

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 window
ProQuest 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 Newspapers
This 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 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.

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)