East Asian Studies

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Books and serials in East Asian languages are inter-shelved with other languages by their Library of Congress call number, assigned according to subject, in Terrell Main and branch libraries.

A system first developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to organize and arrange the book collections of the Library of Congress, the Library of Congress Classification is the most widely used classification system in U.S. academic libraries and divides all knowledge into twenty-one basic classes, each identified by a single letter of the alphabet. Most of these alphabetical classes are further divided into more specific subclasses. For example, class P, Language and Literature, has subclass PL, Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania, among others.

Each subclass includes a loosely hierarchical arrangement of the topics pertinent to the subclass, going from the general to the more specific. Individual topics are often broken down by specific places, time periods, or bibliographic forms (such as periodicals, biographies, etc.). Each topic (often referred to as a caption) is assigned a single number or a span of numbers. For example, PL501-889 is for Japanese language and literature; PL901-998 is for Korean language and literature; PL1001-3208 is for Chinese language and literature. 

Whole numbers may range from one to four digits in length, and may be further extended by the use of decimal numbers. Some subtopics appear in alphabetical, rather than hierarchical, lists and are represented by decimal numbers that combine a letter of the alphabet with a numeral , e.g. .B72 or .K535. Relationships among topics in LCC are shown not by the numbers that are assigned to them, but by indenting subtopics under the larger topics that they are a part of, much like an outline. 

Books and other materials classified in this way have specific shelving locations in a library. There is a guide to shelving locations by the main circulation desk. Maps on each floor will also help orient yourself. What's unique about the East Asian collection is that a large collection of literature in East Asian languages is shelved in Mudd 301, also known as the East Asian Room (see on MAP). 

For library holdings of East Asian films, combine catalog genre filters such as Drama, Feature Films, Documentaries, Nonfiction films with availability and language filters.  

Online streaming is made possible through the following collections, which can also be explored individually:

🎬 Films on Demand

    For language-specific videos, use advanced search filters.
    For feature films specifically, use the subject filter World Cinema. This subset includes 44 feature films in Chinese, 61 in Japanese, and 1 in Korean, all with English subtitles. You can discover related video segments through attached tags such as "Zhang Yimou," "Japanese," "Cinema of Japan," "Yasujirō Ozu."  

🎬 Academic Video Online

    This collection features hundreds of documentaries as well as videos of performance and news story in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The subject filter "East Asian Cinema" applies to 127 feature films in different East Asian languages. The channel Asian Studies is a subset.

🎬 Docuseek

     This collection of documentary films include 94 titles in Mandarin, 40 in Japanese, and 14 in Korean.

🎬 Kanopy

Kanopy offers a good Asian Cinema collection through your public library (get a card today!) and uses very helpful tags. Though Oberlin has limited access to films on Kanopy (use Search.Libraries to find out which films we currently license), you can reach out to Paul Heyde with your Oberlin email address to request a film for a course. All requests are considered on a title-by-title basis.

🎬 DVD/VHS collection

     The library also collected close to a thousand films on DVD and VHS in East Asian languages you can check out. Please note that the Search.Libraries listing includes recent films in English with optional subtitles in East Asian languages. 

Special Collections and Archives on the fourth floor of Terrell Main library both house notable collections for East Asian Studies as a result of major gifts and occasional faculty-facilitated acquisitions. Both Special Collections and Archives frequently host class visits in the Goodrich reading room or Forsyth classroom (MAP) to use these materials.

East Asian librarians who served at Oberlin have described a small number of East Asian languages materials held at Terrell Special Collection for the library catalog at the request of patrons, but most materials remain inaccessible via Search.Libraries. Please refer to the topic guide Using Japanese Woodblock-printed Works at OCL for an inventory of Japanese woodblock printed works and a list of digital surrogates made possible by the generous support of the National Institute of Japanese Literature. A catalog of Chinese materials prepared by Runxiao Zhu (East Asian Studies Librarian 2016-2023) is forthcoming from the series 海外中文古籍总目.

Archival collections (for an overview, see the digital exhibit Oberlin and Asia) that document missionary work and observations in China include

• Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association Records (activities of Oberlinians in Asia from 1881)

• Susan Rowena Bird Papers (the missionary settlement in Shanxi and its programs prior to the Boxer Rebellion of 1900)

• Francis W. and Lydia Lord Davis Papers (missionary work in Shanxi 1889-97; Francis murdered in 1900; Lydia helped establish the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association in 1908)

• Eva J. Price Papers (missionary work in China 1889-1900)

• Alice Moon and George L. Williams Papers (a historical overview of the work of the Shanxi Mission 1883-1950)

• George Durand Wilder Papers (missionary work in China 1894-1940s; teaching in theological schools in China from 1910)

• Paul Leaton Corbin Papers (educational and evangelical work of the American Board in North China 1900-36)

• Ward E. Bailey Senior Family Collection (items collected during missionary service in Ya'an, Sichuan 1912-1919)

• Margaret Portia Mickey Papers (missionary work 1914-20 in Jilin, 1935-37 in Kyoto and Tongzhou; research in Guizhou 1939-44, research in Sichuan 1948-50)

• Frank B. Warner Papers (missionary work 1914-22 in Shanxi)

• Grace E. McConnaughey Papers (missionary work in Shanxi from 1910 to 1928)

• Yasuzo Shimizu Papers (missionary work in Shenyang and Beijing, 1917-early 1920s)

• Willard Livingstone Beard Papers (of particular interest are the twenty letters to his daughter from Fuzhou between 1921-1923)

• Dutton Family Papers (missionary work in Shanxi, 1922-39)

• Dorothy Lloyd Donaldson Papers (teaching the children of missionaries serving in China at the North China American School in Beijing 1925-27)

• Lewis and Lois Gilbert Papers (missionary work in Changsha 1925-27, in North China 1929-41) 

• Raymond T. Moyer papers (Shansi rep in Taigu 1921-23, head of the Ming Hsien agricultural department 1927-41)

• Everett D. Hawkins Papers (Shansi rep in Taigu 1927-29, serving the U.S. Office of War Information in Chongqing 1944-46)

• J. Clayton Miller Papers (Shansi rep in Taigu 1930-32)

• Gertrude M. Hoffman Papers (Shansi rep in Taigu 1933-36)

• Frances J. Cade and E. John Hamlin Papers (Shansi reps in Taigu, Frances 1934-37, John 1936-38; the Hamlins also lived in China 1947-51, studying Chinese in Beijing for a year before teaching at a church related middle school)

• Herbert and Josephine Van Meter Papers (life in China 1930s-50s)

• Robbins Strong Papers (Shansi rep 1934-37, life in China 1947-50)

• Ellsworth C. Carlson Papers (Shansi rep 1939-43, remained in China to work 1943-47)

Other notable collections include:

H. H. (Hsiang-hsi) Kung Collection (OC '1906)

Graduate School of Theology Records (With support of Edward Increase Bosworth, appointed Dean of the Theological Seminary in 1903, Oberlin trained Americans as missionaries until 1927. Seminary students entered service in China, Japan, Thailand, Albania, Turkey, India, the Sandwich Islands, and Jamaica.)

Robert Merrill Bartlett Papers (teaching Western literature at Yenching University 1924-27)

Dale R. Johnson Papers (documents on a replica of the Putuo Zongcheng Temple in storage at Oberlin from 1940s to 1980s)