.
Primary sources are materials in a variety of formats that serve as original evidence documenting a time period, an event, a work, people, or ideas.1
For Chinese art they include artist's writings and correspondence, as well as the artwork itself. For ancient works and monuments primary sources include plans, drawings, and contemporary texts.
1. Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy. Developed by the ACRL RBMS1-SAA2Joint Task Force on the Development of Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy, 2018
Primary Sources
- Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
The Asia Art Archive conducts focused research projects, gathering primary source materials including photographs, video, ephemera and more. SInce 2010 they have been digitizing significant resources and making them available via their collections link on their web site. Asia is broadly defined to include, for example, the Arab World, Central and South Asia. Use this site to search for scanned documents re: a specific artist or institution in Asia. - China: Culture and Society (1750-1929)
Rare pamphlets, mostly in English, on a wide variety of topics including the Chinese diaspora, foreign relations, missionaries, philosophy, art and literature and more.
The Chinese Theory of Art: Translations from the Masters of Chinese Art by Call Number: Art Library 709.51 L63C c.2Publication Date: 1967Translated writings by artists and art critics on problems, techniques, style, and taste.
Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents by Call Number: Art Library N7345 .C666 2010 (2 copies)ISBN: 9780822349433Publication Date: 2010Anthology of key primary texts on Chinese art in the post-Mao era (1976-2006), translated into English.
Early Chinese Texts on Painting by Call Number: Art Library ND1500 .E25 1985ISBN: 0674220250Publication Date: 1985Early texts from before the 14th c. arranged by topic.
- Shansi: Oberlin and Asia
An online digital collection that documents the activity of Oberlinians in Asia from the 1880s to the 1950s. It contains materials from the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association Records and personal paper collections, and it represents a small percentage of the total amount of materials in the College Archives that relate to the work of missionaries and Shansi Representatives in China and as well as other countries. - The Red Brush: Women Writers of Imperial China
Created as part of Washington University's Digital Gateway initiative, The Red Brush project is a collection of texts in Chinese from a wide range of writings from Imperial China, by and about women writers. The materials here are available in both Chinese and English, and the project was designed to complete a narrative anthology entitled "Red Brush: Women Writers of Imperial China". The site makes the original Chinese version of over 500 poems available, along with English language translations. Visitors can use the advanced search feature here, or they can also just browse around at their leisure. The materials are divided into sixteen sections, and some of the highlights include "The full elder brother" by Ban Zhao and "The color of the water" by Hai Yin.
Archaeology
- International Dunhuang Project
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 and to encourage their use through educational and research programmes. For those visitors unfamiliar with the exact location of the Silk Road, a map can be found in the right hand corner of the "About IDP" link. The vast quantities of material from the Silk Road are located in collections and are scattered around the world due to archeological expeditions from different countries beginning in the 19th century.
News sources
- Chinese Newspapers Collection (1832-1953)
Collection of 12 English-language newspapers from China covering 1832-1953, and representing a wide range of regions and cities including Canton, Peking and Shanghai. - Current Digest of the Chinese Press
Selections from Chinese newspapers translated into English; coverage includes politics and culture, international relations and security, business and the economy, etc. - Late Qing and Republican-Era Chinese Newspapers
The first half of the twentieth century began with the demise of China’s last imperial dynasty, the Great Qing, and ended with the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in October 1949. Following the 1912 establishment of China’s first post-imperial government, the Republic of China, the country experienced both industrial and social revolution, a civil war during which communist and nationalist forces battled to shape the country’s future, and looming external threats during both world wars. - World News Connection (1995 - 2013)
Translations and transcripts of news stories from non-U.S. media sources including newspaper articles, conference proceedings, television and radio broadcasts, periodicals, and non-classified technical reports. Coverage focuses on socioeconomic, political, scientific, technical, and environmental issues and events. Dates of Coverage: 1995 - 2013
