ResearchGuides: Asian Studies (China, Japan, Korea, South Asia): China : Databases and Other Resources

Find a Database (Helka)

University Helsinki Chinese Studies Blog

UNIVERSITY HELSINKI CHINESE STUDIES

Fusion of Tradition & Modernity

Dictionaries

MOT Suomalais-kiinalainen sanakirja [open access] Suomi–Kiina-seuran vetämän suursanakirjahankkeen tuloksena syntynyt suomi–kiina-sanakirja. Sanakirja on ilmainen ja vapaasti käytettävissä sanakirja.fi-sivustolla. Sanakirja kuuluu osaksi Kielikone Oy:n MOT Sanakirjoja® ja se sisältää yli 46 000 hakusanaa.
MDBG [open access] Modern Chinese online dictionary. Good for finding out measure words + breaking a text down character by character.
MOT Dictionaries - Oxford Chinese Dictionary Choose a dictionary using the "Select dictionary" dropdown. A comprehensive English-Chinese-English dictionary. In addition to general domains, the dictionary covers a wide range of specialist terminology.
A Student’s Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese Online This is the first Chinese-English dictionary devoted solely to the premodern language. Being a practical lexicon of more than 8000 characters, arranged alphabetically by Pinyin romanization, it is meant to facilitate the reading and translating of historical, literary, and religious texts dating from approximately 500 BCE to 1000 CE.
Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, 電子佛教辭典 The Digital Dictionary of Buddhism [DDB] is a compilation of Chinese ideograph-based terms, texts, temple, schools, persons, etc. found in Buddhist canonical sources. The Chinese-Japanese-Korean-Vietnamese/English Dictionary [CJKV-E] is a compilation of Chinese ideographs, as well as ideograph-comprised compound words, text names, person names, etc., found primarily in the Confucian and Daoist classics. It also includes vocabulary from Neo-Confucian texts, as well as other philosophical and historical sources. Its information on individual ideographs is intended to be comprehensive, containing pronunciations and meanings from ancient and modern sources from the Sinitic cultural sphere including China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. Modern-day compound words are included incidentally, but the coverage of modern materials is not intended to be comprehensive.

Biographical Databases

China Vitae [open access] China Vitae is a resource of biographical information on more than 5000 Chinese leaders in government, politics, the military, education, business, and the media.
China Biographical Database Project, CBDB [open access] The China Biographical Database is a freely accessible relational database with biographical information about approximately 360,000 individuals as of April 2015, primarily from the 7th through 19th centuries. The data is meant to be useful for statistical, social network, and spatial analysis as well as serving as a kind of biographical reference.

China Databases

Nordic and Baltic Libraries: Access to Asia (CrossAsia) Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin acts as a central service provider for users affiliated with German institutions. Within the new service for Nordic and Baltic Universities and research institutions organised in the Nordic Baltic Association for Asian Studies (NoBAS), these may also use SBB services in the context of CrossAsia according to specific agreements.
Airiti library Chinese electronic theses and dissertations service
Airiti TEPS (Airiti) TEPS (Taiwan Electronic Periodical Services) is the largest and only collection of full-text Taiwanese periodicals in the world.
China Academic Journals, 3 concurrent users (CNKI) CAJ & CJP together provide access to full-text and full-image interdisciplinary Chinese journals from 1915 to present. 5 sections: Literature/history/philosophy -- Politics/military affairs/law -- Education/Social sciences -- Electronic Technology & Information Science -- Management/Economics.
China Core Newspapers unlimited concurrent users (CNKI) Gives access to articles from 633 core newspapers from China from 2000 onwards, including Renmin ribao, Guangming ribao, Beijing ribao and many specialized and local newspapers. Interface in English, content in Chinese
ChinaMaxx eBooks ChinaMaxx is a collection of e-books connected to the same platform as the search engine Duxiu. Here you can find 700,000 Chinese titles focusing on social sciences and humanities. The titles are available for searching via Duxiu (select 图书) or this ChinaMaxx homepage. Interface in English and Chinese, content in Chinese.
China Statistical Yearbooks Database/China Data Insights (unlimited concurrent users) NB! Not yet available 6.2.2024 The China statistical yearbooks with data from central, provincial and local level, all translated to English. Includes a data mining platform.
Journal of National Essence (國粹學報) (through AsiaPortal only until 28 Dec 2023 - will continue via the National Central Library of Taiwan early 2024) The Journal of National Essence (國粹學報) was published monthly from 1905 to 1911 in Shanghai at the end of the Qing dynasty by the 國粹派 or the National Essence Group.
LawInfoChina (PK University) 北大法宝
LawInfoChina (English) 北大法宝
People's Daily 人民日报 (Renminwang/Oriprobe) This is access to the Renmin ribao has been negotiated as a European license, administered by Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. It gives access to the whole archives of Renmin ribao up to the latest issues. Fully searchable — either in single
Sinica Sinoweb (through AsiaPortal only until 28 Dec 2023 - will continue via the National Central Library of Taiwan early 2024) Sinica Sinoweb provides full-text access to the archive of 14 journals from Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, with the earliest dating back to as early as 1928.
more...less...
Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology Academia Sinica
Bulletin of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy
Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History Academia Sinica
Research on Women in Modern Chinese History
Oral History Journal
Newsletter for Modern Chinese History
Taiwan Journal of Anthropology
Taiwan Historical Research
Chinese Studies
Thought and Words : Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences
Shih-Huo Monthly
Legein Semi-Annual Journal
Legein Monthly
Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre and Folklore
Taiwan E-Books (open access) Taiwan E-books is a big collection of open access e-books within a wide range of subjects, and maintained by the National Central Library of Taiwan.It can be browsed/ searched according to subjects and publication year, author, publication place and keywords.

Statistics and Research Data

China Statistical Yearbooks Database (will continue via CrossAsia early 2024) NB! Not yet available In Chinese and English. China Statistical Yearbooks Database is a leading database of statistical data in China which collects some of the most important yearbooks published in Mainland China. Covers data from central, provincial and local level, all translated into English. Includes a data mining platform. The database is available in both an English and a Chinese versions. The Chinese version is generally updated faster than the English version.
National Bureau of Statistics of the People's Republic of China [open access] In Chinese and English An official government website to access statistical data in China.
OECDiLibrary OECDiLibrary is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) featuring its books, papers and statistics and is the gateway to OECD’s analysis and data
World Bank Data [open access] Extensive collection of open access to data about development in countries around the globe.
Statistics of Taiwan [open access] An official statistical portal of Taiwan.
Hong Kong Statistics Census and Statistics Department: The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Suomalais–kiinalainen-sanakirja

MOT Suomalais-kiinalainen sanakirja

Sanakirja on ilmainen ja vapaasti käytettävissä sanakirja.fi-sivustolla. Suomalais–kiinalainen sanakirja kuuluu osaksi Kielikone Oy:n MOT Sanakirjoja® ja se sisältää yli 46 000 hakusanaa. Monipuolisuudeltaan vastaavanlaista suomi–kiina-sanakirjaa ei ole tähän mennessä julkaistu.

Lisätietoja Suomi-Kiina seuran sivulta: Ennennäkemätön suomi–kiina-sanakirja julkaistu sanakirja.fi-sivustolla

Ethnologue

Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a comprehensive reference work cataloging the world's known living languages.

Multi-Content English Language Databases

MLA International Bibliography Consists of bibliographic records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore and includes coverage from 1926 to the present. --- The MLA International Bibliography provides access to scholarly research in nearly 4,000 journals and series. It also covers relevant monographs, working papers, proceedings, bibliographies, and other formats.
Academic Search Complete (Ebsco) Multi-disciplinary database. Provides indexing and abstracts for over 12 500 scholarly journals in a variety of disciplines, and full text for over 8500 of these journals.
ATLA with ATLASerials (EBSCO) This index with 1,4 million records is a tool for the study of religion and theology, indexing journal articles, book reviews, and collections of essays in all fields of religion.
JSTOR A fulltext database containing earlier volumes of mainline journals mostly in the fields of social sciences, arts and business. Includes a subject list of Asian studies journals.
ProQuest Databases Provides tens of reference databases and some fulltext databases. It is possible to search one or more databases simultaneously. Includes e.g. Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)
Project MUSE Standard Collection contains full text journals in the humanities and social sciences. Nearly 250 journals from over 40 publishers.

More Open Access resources

International Dunhuang Project - The Silk Road Online [open access] IDP is a ground-breaking international collaboration to make information and images of all manuscripts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from Dunhuang and archaeological sites of the Eastern Silk Road freely available on the Internet.
Wilson Center - Chinese Foreign Policy Database [open access] Curates 1000s of documents from Chinese and international archives, it offers insights into China’s foreign policy since 1949 and its relationship to ideology, revolution, the economy, and traditional Chinese culture. Free access.
Paper Republic - Chinese Literature in Print [open access] Forum for translators of Chinese literature to share information about Chinese books and authors, and discuss how to get them translated and published abroad.
Modern Chinese Literature and Culture (MCLC) Resource Center [open access] Online face of the Journal Modern Chinese Literature and Culture. It publishes online articles and book reviews and sponsors the MCLC LIST. It also houses bibliographies of mostly English-language materials on modern and contemporary Chinese literature, film/media, visual arts, music, education, and culture. An image archive is comprised mostly of images originally published with essays in issues of the print journal.
Chinese Text Project [open access] The Chinese Text Project is an online open-access digital library that makes pre-modern Chinese texts available to readers and researchers all around the world. The site attempts to make use of the digital medium to explore new ways of interacting with these texts that are not possible in print. With over thirty thousand titles and more than five billion characters, the Chinese Text Project is also the largest database of pre-modern Chinese texts in existence.

Selection of Resources: Tibet

Libraries

The Tibetan and Himalaya Library, THL The Tibetan and Himalayan Library (THL), formerly the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (THDL), is a multimedia guide and digital library hosted by the University of Virginia focused on the languages, history and geography of Tibet and the Himalayas. The THL has also designed a scholarly transcription for Standard Tibetan known as the THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription (Wikipedia)
Tibetan Studies Resources (C.V. Starr East Asian Library) An annotated list of Tibetan resources selected by C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University.
Latse Library Since 2003, Latse Library has been the premiere research library dedicated to modern Tibetan studies.

Journals

HIMALAYA - The Journal of the Association of Nepal and Himalaya Studies [open access] HIMALAYA is a biannual, open access, peer-reviewed journal published by the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies.
Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines [open access] The Revue d'Etudes Tibétaines is a twice-yearly (October and April) journal published by the UMR 8155 (CRCAO) of the CNRS, Paris. All contributions are peer-reviewed and back issues are available as free PDF downloads
Himalayan Discoveries – An Interdisciplinary Journal on Himalayan Studies
Asian Highland Perspectives [open access] Asian Highland Perspectives is a journal and book series that brings together a broad scholarly audience while also providing opportunity for voices from the Tibetan Plateau and nearby areas to make themselves heard in novel academic formats.