Resources
The Internet Archive
The Internet Archive (sometimes known as the "Wayback Machine") is an invaluable resource for anyone doing research on China. It has books and movies related to China. And it has an amazing plug-in for the Chrome browser that allows you to see if a page has been archived, or to archive the page yourself. We recommend that anyone reading WeChat or Weibo posts immediately archive those pages on the Internet Archive. That way, even if they become a 404, you can still read the article. The Chrome plug-in is described in this post.
Chinese Independent Film Archive
This archive was established through a funded research project entitled "Independent Cinema in China: State, Market, and Film Culture" and is located in Newcastle University. The Chinese Independent Film Archive safeguards past and current film cultures for future generations, and also acts as an alternative record of social changes, historical traumas, and the lives of ordinary people in modern China. The archive works closely with Chinese independent filmmakers and curators, as well as a range of industry partners and cultural institutions to raise the visibility of Chinese independent cinema. The archive is primarily a physical archive—the website has biographical material and synopses of films but does not offer the films to view.
Chinese Great Famine Archive
This website was first established in 2001 to make available the results of Chinese scholarship about the Great Famine. It has a valuable source of documents, especially stemming from an international symposium held in 2008 on the 50 th anniversary of the famine. It includes a chronology of major events, primary documents, and articles about the famine. The site has not been updated in several years but is still a useful resource for anyone looking into this chapter of contemporary Chinese history. It is available in Chinese.
Memory Project
The Memory Project Oral History collection comprises digital video recordings and written supporting documentation of interviews spanning 2009 to 2016. The interviews were conducted by filmmakers associated with the Work Station, a film studio run by Wu Wenguang in Beijing, China. Memory Project interviews were conducted with Chinese people about mid-20th century rural life, primarily experiences during the Great Famine, but also the Land Reform and Collectivization, the Great Leap Forward, the Four Cleanups Movement, and the Cultural Revolution. More than 150 young filmmakers have joined the project, and since 2010 they have visited 246 villages across provinces and interviewed more than 1,100 elderly villagers. The collection is available in both English and Chinese, and the interviews are conducted in Chinese.
China’s Cultural Revolution in Memories
This collection contains video interviews with people who experienced the Cultural Revolution. It also includes interviews with younger people born after the Cultural Revolution, who discuss how they learned about the historical event. The interviews are conducted in Chinese, and English subtitles and transcripts are also available.
Chinese Cultural Revolution Holocaust Memorial
This collection was created by Wang Youqin, a Professor of the East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department at the University of Chicago. The site includes a list of the names and stories of victims of the Cultural Revolution, as well as other Professor Wang’s academic publications, witness testimonies, and memoirs written by victims or their families later on. The collection is available in both English and Chinese, although many documents can be read in Chinese only.
The “Beijing Spring” – Chinese Democracy Movement 1978-81
This digital collection contains photos, interviews, and documents which chronicle the Chinese Democracy Movement of 1978-1981, also known as the “Beijing Spring.” Since 2013, Dr. Helmut Opletal of the University of Vienna has interviewed about 30 former civil rights activists and contemporary observers, based mainly in China, France, and the United States. On this site, he also presents his research and analysis on relevant materials – including recent publications, documents, photos, audio and video files – on the “Beijing Spring” movement. This collection can be navigated through English, Chinese, and German, and interviews can be read or watched in both English and Chinese.
Maoist Legacy Database
This database was created as part of the project “The Maoist Legacy: Party Dictatorship, Transitional Justice, and the Politics of Truth,” directed by Daniel Leese of the University of Freiburg, Germany. The site contains a carefully curated selection of thousands of documents and images on issues related to the legacies of the Maoist era. Official documents are supplemented with internally circulated collections of model cases, oral history transcripts of interviews, and other relevant materials. One key aim of the project is to study and present the Chinese Communist Party’s strategies and the societal consequences of the major policy change after Mao’s death.
Vanished Archives
Vanished Archives is a documentary about the 1967 Hong Kong riots, which were large-scale anti-government protests that occurred in Hong Kong during British colonial control. The documentary, which is directed by Luen Hui and released in Hong Kong in 2017, attempts to uncover and present “lost” unofficial materials on the protests. The documentary is narrated in Cantonese, with Chinese subtitles. Along with the documentary, this site also includes notes made by the director, as well as information about the process of producing the film.
Old China Hands Archive
The Old China Hands Archive was established in 1996 by Professor Robert Gohstand of California State University, Northridge, in order to preserve and publicize the heritage of the many people from other countries and cultures who have resided and worked in China in the early 20th century. The archive includes correspondence, diaries, photographs, postcards, books, periodicals, and newspapers. The collection is available in English.
Taiwan Memory
This digital collection was created by the National Central Library of Taiwan to analyze and establish interpretative information about historical texts, images, and other documents relating to Taiwan, spanning from the 18th century to the 20th century. Documents shed light on Taiwanese society under Japanese colonial rule and the Qing Dynasty in the 19th century, as well as the politics of modern Taiwan. The collection currently contains more than 267,000 items and more than 2.78 million pages of images, and is available in both English and Chinese.
Virtual Beijing
This collection explores the history of Beijing in the 1920s-1940s through the use of digital technologies, H-GIS, and visual sources. The main visual corpus of this project consists of two photographic collections. The first is a collection made by Sidney D. Gamble, a sociologist and missionary who lived in China from 1917 to 1937, whose work focused on the most underprivileged sections of the population of Beijing. The second set of holdings come from Hedda Morrison, a German photographer who lived in China from 1933 until the end of the Second World War. The visual materials are complemented by the records of the Police and Social Affairs Bureau of the municipality, as well as the records of the press, which documented daily life of ordinary residents of the city. The collection aims to convey the way of life, traditions, and practices of the common people.
Leiden University Unofficial Poetry Collection
Unofficial poetry publications from China, collected by Maghiel van Crevel. The collection contains early specimens from the late 1970s and extends to the early 21st century. It mainly consists of journals but also includes a limited number of monographs. Topics include poetry, working-class writings, and feminism.
Boston Review of Books
The Boston Review of Books is a Chinese-language electronic publication founded in October 2023 and officially launched on January 1, 2024, edited by journalist and writer Luo Siling. The purpose of the publication is "Reading without Limits. Read serious books and be an interesting person", aiming to promote free thinking and independent personality.
The publication relies exclusively on subscriptions and is disseminated through emails and Substack. It is published in English and Chinese (traditional and simplified), featuring book excerpts, book news, author interviews, book reviews, and introductions to literary figures.
Virtual Museum of the Cultural Revolution
In the Spring of 1996, this Virtual Museum of the Cultural Revolution was proposed by the Editorial Board of Hua Xia Wen Zhai (China News Digest). The contents of the museum include contributions from scholars and readers, as well as articles recommended by readers or found scattered in electronic and print publications. They were published in more than 60 special issues on the Cultural Revolution. In 2000, the contents were reorganized into 8 "Exhibition Halls” available to the public, including historical materials, academic research, memories and literary work etc.
The museum was founded by retired physicist Hua Xinmin, a documentarian and researcher of the Cultural Revolution who personally experienced the Cultural Revolution.
Bumingbai Podcast
The most fascinating discussions are undertaken privately in China. Bumingbai Podcast seeks to share these conservations with Chinese audiences from all over the world, and hopes to spark meaningful discussions.
This podcast was founded by several professional news reporters. It explores one topic in depth every week. Examples of past podcast episodes include the leadership of Xi Jinping, Chinese elite politics, the widespread impact of economic downturns, and younger generations’ strategies of “lying flat” and resistance. In addition to advancing information and dialogue, the podcast has become a platform for regular Chinese citizens to collaborate and voice their opinions.
About the host: Prior to joining Bumingbai Podcast, Li Yuan was the “Asia Technology” columnist for the New York Times. She had also worked with the Wall Street Journal, serving as the technology columnist and the editor-in-chief of the Chinese-language website. Before that, she worked for the Xinhua News Agency as an editor of the international column, and was stationed in Thailand and Afghanistan.
Mang Mang Magazine
Mang Mang is a magazine that was established in 2022 during the waves of protests against “Zero-COVID.” It is run by a group of young Chinese people who currently live outside of China. “Mang Mang” publishes articles including news reports, opinion pieces, and literature criticism. Their issues explore topics such as the 2022 White Paper Protests, feminism in China, human rights, Taiwan elections, and problems relating to the Uyghur population. The first issue of Mang Mang magazine is accessible free of charge in Mandarin. All other articles are available in Mandarin, and some are also available in English.