Introduction
Welcome to the Chinese Studies and Language Subject Research Guide
Your subject librarians have designed this guide to highlight online resources at the University of Melbourne Library that are relevant to Chinese Studies and Language.
This guide is intended to be a starting point for your research. For a more comprehensive list of Library resources for this subject please visit the A-Z eJournals and Databases website.
Quick start menu
Five things you can do to start your research in Chinese Studies and Language:
Note: The buttons below will open resources in new windows.
Chinese Language Learning
Expand the following sections to view some resources you may find useful in your Chinese language studies.
Dictionaries & Reference Works
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Chinese-English Dictionary OnlineThe Chinese-English resource of choice for all those reading Chinese texts from the period of approx. 500 BCE to 1000 CE. Allow searching with Pinyin and traditional Chinese characters.
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Oxford Dictionaries. Chinese This link opens in a new windowOnline Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries. Access definitions of words, phrases, and idioms, with advice on style, usage, grammar, and spelling; plus specialist guides for legal and technical writing.
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China Reference Works OnlineThis encyclopedia database contains thousands of China-based reference works, including dictionaries, thesauruses, cyclopedias, illustrated books, and more. Covering subjects across the arts and sciences, this is a great starting point for your research.
Journal Articles
Chinese studies-specific databases:
First of all, try searching in one of these subject-specific databases.
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China Knowledge Resource Integrated DatabaseStart your search of any or all CNKI databases subscribed to by Unimelb Library at this homepage of the CNKI database platform.
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China Academic Journals full-text databaseOne of the most comprehensive Chinese academic journals worldwide, with more than 9,000 journals and covering all subject areas.
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Century Journals ProjectDigitised selection of the most important academic journals published in China from their very first issue until 1993 in an effort to expand the China Academic Journals Full-text Database. The earliest journal dates back to 1887.
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Taiwan Electronic Periodical ServicesA collection of over 900 full-text journals from Taiwan. The Library has access to the Humanities and Social Sciences collections.
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Hong Kong Journals Online (Open Access)An open access full-text image database of selected academic and professional journals published in Hong Kong (English and Chinese). Covering a range of disciplines, including law, medicine, and education. Earliest content from 1872.
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National Social Sciences Database 国家哲学社会科学数据库Free access to hundreds of high level academic journals in humanities and social sciences published in China. Register for access to full-text.
Core Arts and Humanities databases:
The databases below are multidisciplinary so you can expect lots of results from different subject areas.
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Discovery (EBSCO)Use Discovery to look for books, ebooks, journal articles and more. It's a great place to start your search but does not give you everything the Library has. We highly recommend searching in at least one other database on this list as well as Discovery.
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Google ScholarGoogle Scholar is one of the most popular ways to find academic sources for study and research. Did you know you can use it to search for journal articles that the University of Melbourne has access to? You can do this through the link above or set up your Google Scholar preferences to include Library content..
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JSTORJSTOR is one of the largest databases the Library has access to. It is a multidisciplinary database so it looks in thousands of journals in over a hundred subjects - many of them related to arts and humanities. Highly recommended as your first or second place to search.
Browse eJournals on Browzine:
For Chinese language journals, please visit the China Academic Journals full-text Database, and browse journal titles by clicking the Journal Navigation button.
You can view a selection of online Chinese Studies eJournals (English language) that the Library holds by clicking on the button below (this will open in a new window). For a more comprehensive list of eJournals please visit our A-Z eJournals page.
Books
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Chinamaxx Digital LibrariesPopular eBook platform in China. The Library has access to selected titles in the humanities and social sciences areas.
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Apabi Digital LibraryAnother popular eBook platform in China. The Library has access to selected titles in the humanities and social sciences areas.
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Airiti BooksAs a Taiwan platform, Airiti Books provides access to a selection of Chinese ebooks covering a range of topics within Taiwan Studies.
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Digital Collection on China StudiesContains Chinese language eBooks on Chinese culture and society. In the landing page, view titles that UniMelb library has access to under My Library 我的图书馆, or browse the full range of titles under CNKI Books 全部图书.
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China Economy, Public Policy, and Security DatabaseOffers high-value Chinese language analytical reports 'Pishu' (皮书) which are intended to guide policymaking in the People’s Republic of China. Published by the Social Sciences Academic Press, it covers a variety of topics including international relations, agricultural policy, industry competitiveness, and more.
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Ebook Central (Ebook Library, Ebrary)Comprehensive eBook database offering both English and Chinese languages eBooks on China studies.
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Gu jin tu shu ji chengElectronic version of 古今图书集成
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Siku QuanshuElectronic version of 四库全书
Books within the General East Asian Collection
The East Asian Collection is divided into two parts: the Rare East Asian Collection (housed in Baillieu Library and are available via the Baillieu Library Reading Room) and the General East Asian Collection (able to be borrowed from the ERC Library). The General East Asian Collection consists of both print and electronic research materials in Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages. This collection mainly covers the areas of arts and humanities, social sciences and architectural history.
Tips on searching for books within the East Asian Collection:
When using the UniMelb library Catalogue:
- search for Chinese language materials by using Chinese characters (simplified and traditional) or Pinyin Romanisation. If you search with Pinyin Romanisation, please refer to the Library of Congress' Chinese romanization guidelines.
Tips on searching for books in English language
To find English language books for your topic in library Catalogue, use a keyword search. For example:
Chinese cinema
Cultural Revolution
Confucianism
legal reform
Keyword searching often retrieves a large number of results. These four techniques can help you focus your search:
AND
Narrows your search
E.g. Chinese AND cinema
OR
Expands your search
E.g. legal OR law OR judicial
" "
Searches for an exact phrase
E.g. "Cultural Revolution"
*
searches for variant endings
E.g. Confuci* = Confucius, Confucianism, Confucianist
The video below (3:47 mins) explains how you can use these advanced search techniques to quickly find relevant books and ebooks in the catalogue:
You can also find books on similar topics through the subject headings in item records. Click on these headings to view related subjects around your area and the all the books that the library has related to that subject. The image below shows where you can find subject headings.
Looking for a book we don't have or is not on our shelves?
Inter-Library Loans
University of Melbourne staff and students can request resources through the Library’s Inter-Library Loans service. For more information visit the ILL web page, or you can access the request forms.
A CAVAL card allows you to borrow from other universities and TAFEs. Visit the CAVAL website to find out how to sign up for a CAVAL card.
You can then use the Trove website to see which library has the book you want.
Theses
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China Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses full-text DatabaseThis database is one of the most comprehensive, high quality databases of dissertations and theses in China. Coverage is 1984 onwards and is updated daily. It covers all subject areas.
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses GlobalThis database is the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day and offering full text for most of the dissertations added since 1997.
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NLC Digitalized Doctoral Dissertations and Post-doctoral Research Report Database 中国国家图书馆馆藏博士论文与博士后研究报告数字化资源库Provide free access and download.
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National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations in Taiwan 臺灣博碩士論文失知識加值系統Registration is required for full-text.
Statistics / Yearbooks
Chinese statistics and yearbook databases
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China Yearbooks full-text databaseCYFD is the largest, continuously updated contemporary yearbook database in China, covering national/ regional/ industry/ enterprise yearbooks, and more.
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National Population Census of China This link opens in a new windowThis database includes all published volumes of national, provincial, municipal and county level statistics from the 2010 census, and selected volumes from the 1982, 1990 and 2000 census. Data Analysis function is available.
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China Statistical Yearbooks DatabaseCSYD covers all important statistical yearbook titles published in Mainland China since 1949. It contains over 3,569 volumes census and survey data as well as statistical charts.
You can also utilize the following website:
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National Bureau of Statistics of China 中华人民共和国国家统计局Full-text China Statistical Yearbooks, Population Census Data, Statistical Communiqués, as well as various kinds of data, indicators, indexes, etc.
Search tips: finding more statistics and yearbooks
For print sources, try keywords search in our library Catalogue with the following:
Click on the button below to view more statistical resources that the Library holds/has access to (this will open in a new window).
Newspapers
For more information about finding news, click on the button below (this will open in a new window).
Chinese Historical Newspapers in Microform
Visit the Baillieu Library for on-site access to the University of Melbourne Library's Chinese Historical Newspapers in Microform Collection (this will open in a new window).
Primary Sources
The Rare East Asian Collection houses more than 20,000 volumes of titles ranging from the 17th century to the 21st century.
Collection items can be requested for viewing in the Special Collections Reading Room at Baillieu Library, Level 3.
The University of Melbourne Library holds a significant Chinese Microform Collection containing a wealth of primary and secondary source material. For example, 红卫兵资料 OR 申報; 大公報. For more information about accessing the microforms collection, click on the button below (this will open in a new window).
Below are selected China-related primary source databases, you can find more by visiting the A-Z eJournals and Databases website.
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Quan guo bao kan suo yin shu ju ku 1857-1992Developed by Shanghai library, this database covers millions of records of digitized newspapers and periodicals from Late Qing period to contemporary China. The library has access to selected series from 民国时期期刊索引数据库 and 现刊索引数据库.
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Hytung Chinese Old Periodicals Database (1792-1949)Contains thousands of magazines and newspapers printed in China from 1792 to 1949, plus important materials for modern literary studies such as "Dian Shi Zhai Pictorial", "Education World", and more.
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Foreign Office Files for China, 1919-1948Formerly restricted British Foreign Office files on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan from 1919 to 1948 covering: 1) 1919-1929: Kuomintang, CCP and the Third International 2) 1930-1937: The Long March, Civil War in China and the Manchurian Crisis 3) 1938-1948: Open Door, Japanese War and the Seeds of Communist Victory. Includes diplomatic despatches, letters, maps, and more.
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Foreign Office Files for China, 1949-1980Covers crucial periods in contemporary China:1949-1956; 1957-1966; and 1967-1980.
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Chinese Anti-Rightist Campaign Database (1957- )This database is a major historical archival project containing first-hand original written materials about the 1957 Anti-Rightist Campaign.
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ProQuest Historical NewspapersThese historical newspapers provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily-searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time. The individual titles can be cross-searched alongside all ProQuest Newspaper collections.
Browse all primary source databases
Click on the button below to browse all online primary source databases the Library subscribes to (it will open in a new tab).
You can sort the list by searching with China in the search box.
Chinese Legal Research
Click on the button below to view a selection of resources on Chinese legal research that the Library holds (this will open in a new window).
Referencing and Citing
Contact us
Contact your subject librarian
Xiaoju Liu
Senior Librarian, Chinese & Asian Studies
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