Sidebar
Main Content
Chinese Collection - Development Policy
I. GUIDELINES FOR COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT
There are four priorities in the development of the Chinese Collection. They are: 1) to acquire primary materials for Chinese Studies, such as newly punctuated, collated, and annotated works in classical Chinese, reports of archaeological excavations and anthropological surveys, translations of the classical works of ethnic minorities living in today's China, photo-reprinted archives of local authorities in late imperial and republic China, and official and legal documents published by the Chinese government; 2) to acquire high-quality secondary studies and academic journals in the fields of Chinese literature, language, history, religion, archaeology, folklore, art history, society, ethnic and international relations, law, traditional sciences and technology, and Dunhuang and Turfan studies; 3) to collect important reference materials such as bibliographies of scholarly works in various fields and different languages, indexes to classical Chinese texts, encyclopedias, dictionaries, maps, etc; and 4) to acquire and gain access to important electronic resources for Chinese Studies.
A. Chronology
From antiquity to the present. With special emphases on the pre-Qin (before 3rd century BCE), medieval (3rd-10th centuries CE), late imperial (1644-1912), and contemporary (1949-) periods.
B. Formats
Chiefly books and journals, some newspapers, microfilms, and electronic.
C. Geography
China in the broadest sense (including China proper, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, and Xinjiang).
D. Languages
Chiefly Chinese, some bi-lingual works such as language dictionaries and western translations of traditional Chinese texts.
E. Publication Dates
Current publications, including reprints of early Chinese works.
II. PRINCIPAL SOURCES OF SUPPLY and MAJOR SELECTION TOOLS
The collection acquires most materials from the following sources: Beijing Forestsong Book Company, Beijing; Mans Book Company, Hong Kong; Joint Publishing Company, Hong Kong; Shanghai Book Traders, Shanghai; China National Publishing Industry Trading Corporation, Beijing; Lexis Books, Taiwan; China Post, Taiwan; and China Classics, California.
III. SUBJECT COLLECTED and LEVELS OF COLLECTING
Subject Collected Levels of Collecting Anthropology 1/1/3 Archaeology 4/4 Art/Architecture 3/3/4 Buddhism 4/4 Confucianism 4/4 Diplomatic History 1/1/3 Economic History 2/2 Economics (Modern) 2/2 Folklore 2/2/3 Gender, Sexuality & Women's Studies 2/2/4 History, pre-modern 4/4 History, 20-century 3/3/4 Literature, pre-modern 4/4 Literature, 20-century 2/2/3 Philosophy, pre-modern 3/3/4 Philosophy, 20-century 2/2/3 Political science 1/1/3 Sociology 1/1/3 Taoism 3/3/4 Traditional medicine 2/2/4
IV. SUBJECTS EXCLUDED
Modern popular and children's literature, traveler's guides, modern art, translations of Western literature, textbooks, and works on science in general, with exceptions in each case.
V. COOPERATIVE ARRANGEMENTS
In order to supplement the holdings at Penn, faculty and students are encouraged to utilize a number of Chinese Studies resources located in the middle Atlantic regions. Columbia University in New York, for example, offers extensive law and pre-modern history collections. Princeton University holds a large number of Chinese academic journals that are commercially unavailable both in the Humanities and in the Social Sciences. The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., accessible within a day's commuting distance, offers the largest collection on East Asian Studies.
