East Asia: China

Age of Exploration, a collection which explores five centuries of colonial expansion, scientific investigations and territorial conflict, includes significant material relating to East Asia. Early documents include the sixteenth-century manuscripts China: la ti[er]ra q[ue] comunmente llamamos China, llamaron por otro nombre el reyno del Catay, a short description of China, mentioning the Lunqing Emperor and the government of the country (c1567-1573), and Journal of a voyage to discover a passage to Cathay (1582-83) written by British clergyman Richard Madox. An essay by Dr Marguerite Ragnow of the James Ford Bell Library, Expanding Trade Through Exploration: the James Ford Bell Collection, highlights the importance of the Silk Road trading route, and the demand for goods including both silk and porcelain, in promoting commerce and cultural exchange between Europe and Asia.

This title showcases a rich variety of children’s books and works of art from the 1820s to the 1920s, known as the ‘Golden Age’ of children’s literature. Many references to the countries of East Asia can be found in these works, demonstrating how children in North America and Europe were introduced to different cultures. Traditional and stereotyped views of China from a colonial, western mindset can be seen, for example in the many versions here of the popular fairy tale Aladdin, which is also the subject of card games and puzzles. Other works range from factual travel accounts, geographical books and atlases, to educational works on nationhood and ethnicity. These describe differing customs, religious practices, languages and holidays from a US- and Euro-centric point of view which, in this era can contain offensive and othering language and ideas towards different nationalities.

This collection features a series of titles published by the Church Missionary Society, a major Anglican evangelical movement. It is organised into two modules documenting missionary work from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. An essay by Phillip Cantrell II of Longwood University, Discovering the Work of the Church Missionary Society in China, Japan and India through the Region-specific Periodicals details the region-specific work of the CMS, which can be explored in titles such as Homes of the East, and The Bulletin of the Diocese of Western China. The interactive Chronology can be filtered by the East Asia region, for further information on educational efforts in China. Module Two of this title includes medical journals of the CMS which record the work of medical missionaries in China with, for instance, campaigns against the practice of foot-binding.

Records from the British government’s India Office, held at the British Library and digitised for this collection, illustrate the history of the East India Company from 1599 to 1947. The global operations of this powerful trading force extended in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to include China, with a principal trading base first in Taiwan and later Canton. The Chronology gives details on trade between Britain and China from the seventeenth century, with the creation of the Canton System and importation of silk, tea and porcelain; while the principal export from the later eighteenth century was of opium from Calcutta to China. An essay by Sam Ellis of the University of Leeds, The Sepoy Abroad: East India Company expeditions beyond south Asia, describes developments in trade with China during this period, including the Opium Wars, the 1842 Treaty of Nanking, and the ceding to Britain of Hong Kong. An interactive Map shows the total value of imports and exports between China and London from 1760-1834.

This collection comprises almost every play submitted for licence in Britain between 1737 and 1824. It includes works of Chinese origin, such as The Orphan of China (1759), based on a thirteenth-century work by dramatist Ji Junxiang. There are also plays representing a western interpretation of East Asia, such as L'Eroe Cinese (1782), a dramatisation of the life of Emperor Li-vang by the Italian Pietro Metastasio, and the pantomime Harlequin and Fortunio; or, The Treasures of China (1815).

This multi-archive title brings together collections of rare journals published across Britain and its colonies between c1635 and 1835. They demonstrate a wide-ranging British interest in topics relating to the history, culture and day-to-day lives of countries within the East Asian region. Journals such as the Britannic Magazine (published 1793-1807) surveyed the history and customs of the Chinese Empire, from this white and Eurocentric point of view; while The Lady's Magazine contained features on Chinese-influenced fashions and fabrics. Chinese literary traditions are examined in Memoirs of Literature (published 1710-22).

Empire Online charts the rise and fall of empires across the world over a period of five centuries. The imperial ambitions of European powers in relation to East Asia were seen in many different areas of activity, such as trading relationships, missionary efforts, educational ventures, and the use of slave labour. The sources in this collection, largely written by Europeans, demonstrate a colonial, western mindset, and frequently use problematic and offensive language.
The importance of commodities including tea, spices and raw silk can be seen in documents such as European trade with China and India (1792), and an essay by Professor Alan Frost of La Trobe University, Economic Aspects of Empire, looks in detail at the trade between East Asia and the West, highlighting sources on eighteenth-century British trading voyages to Macau and Canton. During the later nineteenth century the British government also began to recruit indentured labourers from China for plantations in Trinidad, British Guiana and elsewhere. The Medical Missionary in China (London, 1861) describes nineteenth-century missionary ventures in China.

This collection features thousands of audio field recordings and interviews, educational content, film footage, notebooks, correspondence and slides from locations worldwide. A series of recordings made by Norman Track in China in 1988-1990 is the subject of an essay by Dr Rees, The Norman Track Collection of Naxi Traditional Music. A series of Musical Instrument Case Studies includes a feature on the music of China, with links to primary source content and a demonstration of instruments.

This multi-archive collection offers diverse sources, from personal papers to military files, ephemera and artwork, to highlight the experiences of soldiers, civilians and governments during the First World War. It looks at all theatres of the war, including the Asia Pacific region. Documents on China give information on the use of Chinese labourers by Allied forces. An audio-visual source, A Chinese Labour Contingent, highlights their service in 1916-18 as part of the British Army.

The primary sources in this multi-archive collection illustrate the history of food and drink across a period of five centuries. An image gallery of Global and Ethnic Cuisines includes cookbooks from China.

Global Commodities explores the history of trade and consumption worldwide through the story of fifteen key commodities. East Asia played an especially important role in commerce in opium, tea, porcelain and silver. Primary sources include documents such as Our Opium Trade with China (1877), and reports on the events of the Opium Wars of 1839-60. Opium as a Historical Commodity by David Bello of Washington and Lee University analyses Chinese consumption of opium, its domestic production, and the value of trade with India. The role of silver in Chinese trade is seen in items such as Letters on the Gold-Silver Question from the China Standpoint (1893). On trade in tea, documents relating to its cultivation in China include histories of production and manufacture, correspondence relating to commerce, and accounts such as A Description of the Growth, Manufacture, Disposal, Qualities, and Uses of the Genuine Chinese Tea (1819).

This resource brings together unique primary sources to enable research into a pivotal part of history for public health and medicinal advancement. It includes an essay by Sherry Yeun-Yung Chan entitled '"Unfit for Modern Public Health": the Racialization of Chinese Communities in Early 20th Century Plague Responses'.

This collection charts the development of leisure travel through the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Destinations throughout East Asia were among the many areas visited by tourists from Europe and North America, as seen in the travel journals, brochures, guidebooks, correspondence, maps and postcards in this resource. A survey of Historical, Cultural and Religious Tourism highlights western tourist travel to temples in China.

This multi-archive resource looks at the history of illness and the development of medical practice on front lines from 1850 to 1949. It includes information on casualties, treatment and mortality, particularly in relation to the First and Second World Wars.

This multi-archive title looks at the movement of peoples from Europe and Asia to North America and Australasia during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A Migration map gives figures for migration from Asia to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand from the 1880s onwards. Documents from The National Archives give information on the organisation by the British Colonial Office of Chinese indentured labour in Africa and the Caribbean: they include records on mortality rates, litigation against plantation owners, and crime and punishment. Later sources examine Chinese and Japanese immigration in the United States: records from the California Historical Society such as The Chinese in California: Description of Chinese Life in San Francisco, Their Habits, Morals and Manners (1880) show the local tensions over this migration, and arrangements for the deportation of illegal migrants.

Over 300 newspaper titles in this resource, including both rare and well-known publications, give a wide-ranging view of the Second World War and the experiences of those on its front lines. Newspapers in theatres of action such as the Asia-Pacific region kept units informed on the progress of the war, and also provided news local to where units were stationed. The Interactive map shows that the US Army publication Outfit was distributed to units serving in China. The Chronology can be filtered by the theme Sino-Japanese War, and gives background on events such as the Battle of Shanghai and the Nanjing Massacre.

This multi-archive collection covers a five-century timespan, and looks at major subjects such as different forms of slavery, its continued existence and legacy, and issues of social justice. It contains sources relating to forms of slavery in China, frequently from a white, colonial mindset, and often using problematic and offensive terminology. The migration of Chinese and Indian indentured labourers to the United States is discussed in documents such as How to Abolish Slavery in America, and to Prevent a Cotton Famine in England, with remarks upon Coolie and African Emigration, a British work of 1858.

This unique collection of communist-produced films and newsreels on the world events and current affairs of the twentieth century includes some notable content from and about the countries of East Asia. The interactive Map indicates places of interest featured in individual films, and shows that 212 films have content on China. For more detail on films produced in China between 1949 and 1962 see an essay by Matthew D. Johnson of Taylor’s University, State Filmmaking and International Documentary in Maoist China.
Two of the sub-collections within this title focus specifically on East Asia:
• Revolution, War, Conflict in China & Korea contains a series of films relating to China and the Korean peninsula during the twentieth century. These focus on events such as the Boxer Rebellion, the Sino-Japanese War of 1936-45, Chinese rule over Tibet, and the actions of the US Army during the Korean War.
• China Today contains newsreels from 1950-64 produced by Peking’s Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio of the People’s Republic of China. These present the government’s interpretation of modern and productive industry and technology, thriving agriculture, successful international relations, and popular cultural celebrations and traditions.

The World’s Fairs showcased in this collection include some major events held in East Asia during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. China participated in the World’s Fair phenomenon, holding an event in the city of Nanking in 1910, "China's first world's fair", followed a century later by Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

This collection of Foreign Office Files provides a comprehensive history of key events across Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos during a period of political upheaval, civil unrest and escalating conflict. It covers the role played by China as one of the powers competing for influence in the context of the Cold War.

British Government Foreign Office files relating to Japan. Some of the main themes covered include tensions with China, and Japan's aggressive foreign policy in Manchuria.