History : Asia

Newspapers from Asia

Access World News Research Collection (Newsbank) This link opens in a new window
Our largest general news source, with current and complete newspapers, magazines, wire services from around the world. Backfiles sometimes go back to the 1980s. Text only.
View a list of all sources.
Chinese Newspapers Collection (Proquest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
This project was partially funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.
Research Chinese political and social life during the turbulent 120 year period from 1832 to 1953 with 12 English-language Chinese historical newspapers.Full image newspapers offer searchable access to advertisements, editorials, cartoons, and classified ads.
Included are critical perspectives on the ending of more than 2,000 years of imperial rule in China, the Taiping Rebellion, the Opium Wars with Great Britain, the Boxer Rebellion and the events leading up to the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, and the subsequent founding of the Republic of China.
Ethnic NewsWatch (Proquest) This link opens in a new window
Primarily US-based publications that cover the ethnic press, useful for studying immigrant communities and perspectives on US and foreign events.
Includes the Bay State Banner, an independent newspaper primarily geared toward the interests of Boston's African-American community, and the Boston Irish Reporter.
South Asia Newspapers (World Newspaper Archive) (Readex/Newsbank) This link opens in a new window
A collection of English and Hindi newspapers from the late 19th and early 20th century, useful for late empire studies, the rise of nationalism, and World War One.
South China Morning Post 1903-2001 (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) This link opens in a new window
This historical newspaper provides news coverage of the politics, society and events of China and Hong Kong. In addition to article content, the full-image newspapers offer searchable access to advertisements, editorials, cartoons, and classified ads.
Times of India 1838-2010 This link opens in a new window
Based in Bombay the Times of India offers full page and article images with searchable full text.

East Asian Primary Source Websites

Frog in a Well
A collection of primary source translations on China, Taiwan, Korea, Burma, and Malaysia
Internet East Asian History Sourcebook
A collection of links and documents about east Asian history, especially China and Japan.
East Asian Collection (University of Wisconsin)
Historical images that present a visual archive of 20th century East Asian cultural heritage.

China

Chinese Digital Archive (1966-1976)
Digitized documents and artifacts from the Cultural Revolution held in the Australian National University Archives.

Foreign Office Files for China, 1919-1980 (Adam Matthew Digital) This link opens in a new window
British foreign office documents related to China
These formerly restricted British government documents, consisting of diplomatic dispatches, letters, newspaper cuttings, maps, reports of court cases, biographies of leading personalities, summaries of events and diverse other materials, provide unprecedented levels of detail into one of the most turbulent centuries of Chinese history.

Formosa: 19th Century Images
Primarily European and American images of the island of Taiwan – called "Formosa" by foreign visitors in the nineteenth century – and its various peoples, natural resources, wildlife, and built environment.
Historical Photographs of China
Photographs of 100 years of China's history from many private collections.
Hong Kong Government Reports
International Dunhuang Project: the Silk Road Online
Information and images of all manuscripts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from the Dunhuang archeological site in Western China

Japan

Japan Center for Asian Historical Records
A digital archive of documents about Japanese foreign relations, chiefly from the National Archives of Japan
National Archives of Japan Digital Archive
The official digital archive of the Japanese government
Japanese Historical Text Initiative
Key documents in Japanese history with English translations
Visualizing Cultures: Japan in the Modern World
A visually-based curriculum about Japan, developed at MIT.

Korea

Korean War 1950-1953
A digital archive largely obtained from Russian and Chinese sources. (Wilson Center)
Korean History On-line 한국역사정보통합시스템
13 Korean history databases: National Institute of Korean History (국사편찬위원회), Kyujanggak (규장각), Jongyŏnggak (존경각), Munchŏn’gak (문천각), the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs of the Republic of Korea (국가보훈처), Independence Hall of Korea (독립기념관), Academia Coreana (명지대학교 국제한국학 연구소), Korean Classics Research Institute (민족문화추진회), the Korea Democracy Foundation (민주화운동 기념사업회), the War Memorial of Korea (전쟁기념사업회), the Korean Studies Advancement Center (한국국학진흥원), Korean Women’s Development Institute (한국여성개발원), and the Academy of Korean Studies (한국학중앙연구원). Search by keyword, title, author, summary, and publisher.
Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women
A powerful and emotional documentary about Korean women forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. The individual testimonies in Silence broken, combined with unusual archival footage and dramatized images, shatter the half-century of silence and create a collective story filled with soulful sorrow and amazing resilience of the human spirit.

Vietnam

Virtual Vietnam Archive
4 million items digitized by Texas Tech relating to the Vietnam Conflict. Items tend to be personal in nature (diaries, oral histories, maps) and not official documents.
Southeast Asia Digital Library
A variety of materials about Southeast Asia drawn from scholars and collections in the region.

Primary Sources at Snell

Published collections of primary sources in translation can help simplify your research process. There are many names for these published works including:

sourcebooks
collections
anthologies
translations

Try adding these terms to your search to help find primary sources in our collection.

Ex: Korea and history and translations

Here is a link to a list of these collections to get you started:

East Asia Primary Sources (Leganto)