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The Sheridan Libraries

East Asian Studies: Library Guide to 19th/Early 20th Century China

Explore library resources for East Asia related research.

Resources for 19th and Early 20th Century China

Primary Sources in Print
Multi-volume sets for Qing and Republic Era

Qing Documents

Qing Borderland and Foreign Relations

Pictorials

Women's Studies

Social/Local Conditions

Literature

Socialist Era

Taiwan Sources

Overseas Chinese

Primary Sources Digital

Digitized Newspapers and Periodicals 

Digitized Book Collections

Primary Sources in English

General Sources

Missionary and Travel Sources

  • Church Missionary Society Periodicals
    Documenting missionary work from the 19th to the 21st century, the periodicals include news, journals and reports offering a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounter, including coverage of missionary work in China and other Asian areas.
  • Church Missionary Society -- East Asia Missions
    This collection contains the letter books, administrative material and other original papers (including those of individual missionaries) of the CMS missions in Japan and China and of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society in India from the 1810s to the 1950s.
  • Church Missionary Society -- Mission for Women
    Included here are papers of the Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India and the East, the Zenana, Bible and Medical Mission and the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society, and various publications focusing on the CMS's missionary work among women, including India's Women and China's Daughters (1880-1957) and The Indian Female Evangelist (1872-1956).
  • Medieval Travel Writing
    Includes manuscripts of some of the most important works of European travel writing from the later medieval period. The chief focus is on journeys to central Asia and the Far East, including accounts of travel to Mongolia, Persia, India, China and South-East Asia.
  • Missionary, Sinology and Literary Periodicals 1817-1949
    Includes a collection of 17 English-language periodicals published in or about China during a period of over 130 years, extending from 1817 until the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. This resource features a significant collection of articles and photos on the founding and development of Christian higher education in China, including the establishment and growth into prominence of such institutions as Yenching University, the University of Nanking, Ginling College, Shandong Christian University, Soochow University, St. John’s University, Shanghai Baptist College, and the Canton Christian College.
  • Travel Writing, Spectacle, and World History
    This resource brings together hundreds of accounts by women of their travels across the globe from the early 19th century to the late 20th century. Includes travel accounts to China and other Asian areas.

Government Sources

  • Foreign Office Files for China, 1919-1980
    • 1919-1929: Kuomintang, CCP and the Third International
    • 1930-1937: The Long March, civil war in China and the Manchurian Crisis
    • 1938-1948: Open Door, Japanese war and the seeds of communist victory
    • 1949-1956: The Communist revolution
    • 1957-1966: The Great Leap Forward
    • 1967-1980: The Cultural Revolution
  • Policing the Shanghai International Settlement, 1894-1945
    These files represent a large portion of the archives of the British-run municipal police force based in Shanghai's former international settlement. This self-governing area was administered not by the Chinese but by the international group of merchants and bankers who paid the taxes and controlled the municipal council.  The time period covered by these files extends from 1894 to 1945, and the most extensive coverage is provided by the special branch dossier files, which date from 1929-1945.

Books, Articles, Dissertations (Chinese and English)

Scholarly References and Journals