Data and Archives
Harvard University
The China Biographical Database is a freely accessible relational database with biographical information about approximately 641,568 individuals as of August 2024, currently mainly from the 7th through 19th centuries. With both online and offline versions, the data is meant to be useful for statistical, social network, and spatial analysis as well as serving as a kind of biographical reference. The image below shows the spatial distribution of a cross dynastic subset of 190,000 people in CBDB by basic affiliations (籍貫).
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.
Newcastle University
CIFA is dedicated to the preservation of and access to Chinese independent film culture. It holds a large and rare collection of films and footage, their associated material culture, existing publications on Chinese independent cinema in both English and Chinese, and oral history material with a wide range of stakeholders. The archive provides invaluable primary sources for teaching and researching contemporary China and opens a window onto China’s culture, society and politics for academic communities and the general public alike. Through the curation of screenings, exhibitions and symposia, academic publications, creative productions and educational activities, CIFA aims to build bridges between academia, industry and the public, ensure the legacy of Chinese independent cinema, and contribute to its future development. Based in Newcastle University, CIFA is established with the help of a research grant from UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, and continues to operate with the support of Newcastle University, UK. This website functions as a window onto the collections in the archive and a platform to showcase CIFA’s activities including publications, exhibitions and events.
University of Guelph
The Manchuria: Literature and Culture website, hosted by the University of Guelph, is a digital hub that delves into the rich literary and cultural traditions of Northeast China. It brings together scholarly research, primary sources, and critical analyses to explore the historical and socio-political dynamics of the region, offering an engaging resource for students, researchers, and enthusiasts interested in East Asian studies.
Song Yongyi
The mission of the Laogai Research Foundation (LRF) is to commit primarily to support and facilitate the work concerning the brutal and exploitative prison system historically known as Laogai in the People’s Republic of China. The LRF also allocates resources to expose any other human rights abuse in China as well. By supporting political and religious victims, assisting practical and research activities on political repression in China, and promoting democratic movement in China and abroad, the LRF aims to spur international pressure on the Chinese Communist regime and ultimately bring human rights abuses China to an end.
McGill Library
The Ming Qing Women's Writings digital archive and database project is dedicated to the digitization of collections of writings by women in late imperial China (1368-1911). The website was launched in 2005. The on-going project employs new digital technology to preserve and make accessible on the internet this valuable cultural legacy for future generations of scholars, researchers, and other interested publics, thus building intellectual and technological infrastructure and creating possibilities to generate new methodologies in the fields of digital humanities and China studies. The website consists of a virtual library augmented by the online scholarly apparatus designed and implemented by the McGill Library Digital Initiatives team. In addition, it features a link for each writer to the China Biographical Database hosted at Harvard University.