Databases

China and the Modern World is a series of digital archive collections sourced from preeminent libraries and archives across the world, including the Second Historical Archives of China and the British Library. The series covers a period of about 180 years (1800s to 1980s) when China experienced radical and often traumatic transformations from an inward-looking imperial dynasty into a globally engaged republic. Consisting of monographs, manuscripts, periodicals, correspondence and letters, historical photos, ephemera, and other kinds of historical documents, these collections provide excellent primary source materials for the understanding and research of the various aspects of China during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as diplomacy/international relations, economy/trade, politics, Christianity, sinology, education, science and technology, imperialism, and globalization.

China and the Modern World contains the following collections: 

• Diplomacy and Political Secrets, 1869-1950
• Hong Kong, Britain and China, Part I, 1841-1951 (War and Colonial Department and Colonial Office: Hong Kong, Original Correspondence)
• Hong Kong, Britain and China, Part II, 1965–1993
• Imperial China and The West, Part I, 1815-1881
• Imperial China and The West,  Part II, 1865-1905
• Missionary, Sinology, and Literary Periodicals, 1817-1949
• Records of the Maritime Customs Service of China, 1854-1949
• Records of Shanghai and the International Settlement, 1836-1955

The database is also accessible via Gale Primary Sources.