Chinese Studies : Home

Welcome! 欢迎! 歡迎!

This research guide will support you in discovering Chinese Studies resources at UW-Madison and beyond. The Chinese Studies Collection at UW-Madison contains over 300,000 physical volumes and other digital resources in the Chinese language. The collection also consists of large volumes and electronic resources in non-Chinese languages related to Chinese Studies. 

The Memorial Library at UW-Madison started to collect Chinese materials in 1917. In that year, a Chinese student donated some books and journal titles to our libraries. In 1965, the Memorial Library hired the first Chinese Studies Librarian. 

With the development in over one century, the Chinese Studies Collection has emphasized Chinese history, literature, art, linguistics, and frontiers. The collection also developed the Women's Studies, economics, and foreign relations associated with Chinese Studies. The primary Chinese Studies books and periodicals are located on the 4th floor, Memorial Library. The Chinese rare books are located at the Special Collections. Other significant collections of Chinese materials are accessible at the College Library, Law Library, Mills Music Library, Steenbock Library, Kohler Art Library, as well as the Wisconsin Historical Society Library.

What's New

Digital Resources

• new Press Resources Service Platform of RUC (人大当代报刊资源服务平台) (NetID required)
  The service platform provided by Renmin University focuses on contemporary Chinese periodicals. It offers access to various levels of party newspapers, comprehensive news publications, and industry-specific professional newspapers.
  Trial period: 3/13/2025-6/11/2025
   
• new Database of Chinese Local Records IV (中國方志庫 IV) (NetID required)
  It contains Volume IV from Erudition (爱如生) with local gazetteers from the Song Dynasty to the Republican era. 
  Trial period: 2/25/2025-3/31/2025
   
• new Database of China Medical I (中國醫學庫 I) (NetID required)
  It contains Volume I from Erudition (爱如生) with classical texts of traditional Chinese Medicine. 
  Trial period: 2/25/2025-3/31/2025
   
• new Oxford Bibliographies - Chinese Studies (NetID required)
  A comprehensive reference tool offering authoritative research guides for Chinese studies, combining in-depth analysis of an annotated bibliography with the scope of an encyclopedia.
   
• new CathayPlay (NetID required)
  Streaming video collection of 700 independent films and documentaries from China, presented in their original language with English captions or subtitles.
   
• new Claude L. Pickens, Jr. Collection of Photographs: Muslims in China
  This collection from Harvard-Yenching Library comprises over 1,000 photographs capturing Muslims and Christian missionaries in Western China during the 1920s and 1930s.
   

• new Open Databases for China Studies Resource Guide
  This guide provides an overview of open databases and free resources with primary materials for China studies research.

Monthly New Books

• The Book of Secrets : A Personal History of Betrayal in Red China (eBook) by Xue, Xinran
• Covert colonialism governance, surveillance and political culture in British Hong Kong, c. 1966-97 (eBook) by Mok, Florence
   
• New Selection Books - please submit a request for the temporarily unavailable copy if necessary
  Need something? - Request a purchase

Events & Exhibits

• Mobilizing Chinese Information and Media in Early Modern France: How the History of Information Can Inform Global Conceptual and Intellectual Histories of Governance and Infrastructure
  March 17th, 4:00 pm
  @Ingraham 206