China: Culture and Society

China: Culture and Society. AM. Contact publisher for pricing (based on Carnegie Classification and JISC); includes nominal hosting fee, payable every 5 years* [see Publisher's Note below]. Reviewed in Feb 2013 CHOICE.

[Visited Nov'12] This online resource complements AM’s database China: Trade, Politics and Culture, 1793-1980, which uses sources from the School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Library, London. China: Culture and Society encompasses the digitized Charles W Wason Pamphlet Collection on East Asia from Cornell University. Comprising some 1,200 pamphlets bound in 220 volumes, this rare and unique collection is written mostly in English by academics, diplomats, merchants, missionaries, and travelers who came in contact with China over several centuries. The pamphlets are mainly in the form of addresses and speeches, guides, lecture notes, letters, and meeting minutes, published ca. 1750 to 1929. Very few of them survived elsewhere. The contents of this incredibly rich primary resource effectively cover all aspects of history and culture of the people of China and foreign involvement there. Topics explored are remarkably broad, including the Chinese diaspora, architecture, education, foot binding, the foreign presence in China, international relations, language and literature, missionaries and Christianity, opium, religion and mythology, and more. Besides the full text, the database features several secondary resources: an interactive Chronology, Essays, Mini Guides, a Visual Resources Gallery, and a useful External Links section. Of particular appeal is the Visual Resources Gallery, which not only displays illustrations and artworks, but also allows downloading of images (exportable as PDFs) and running slide shows on selected images. As with other AM digital resources, this collection is full-text searchable and digitized in full color, capturing beautiful illustrations, photographs, maps, and cover art designs.

Users are provided with an Introduction, Documents, Further Resources, Help, Advanced Search, and Popular Searches tabs on the main resource page. The entire collection, in alphabetical order, can be viewed via the Documents tab or filtered by themes using advanced search. The Help section consists of a Tour, Page by Page Guide, FAQ, and Teaching tabs to guide users through the resource. The database is best viewed using the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and Adobe Acrobat to read the PDF images. Its interface is quite user-friendly and easy to navigate. This database also provides metadata on individual pamphlets and downloadable MARC 21 catalog records, free of charge. Documents and images may be saved in My Archive and My Lightbox, respectively. Users may create personalized collections and slide shows, and also export selected documents to RefWorks or Endnote (CH, Feb'08, 45-2929). A free four-week trial is open to academic institutions and libraries. This impressive resource will be valuable to scholars and students of China and East Asia, and also will facilitate interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences.

Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through researchers/faculty.

Reprinted with permission from choice http://www.cro2.org, copyright by the American Library Association.

Publisher's Note: As of January 2013 our standard hosting model requires annual, rather than quinquennial, payments.