Sources for Modern and Contemporary China and Taiwan

This module is a rich repository of source materials on the work of this globally influential organisation, founded in 1799 as an Anglican evangelical movement and still active today.
Scholars of missiology and global history will find this varied archive an invaluable research resource. It includes records of both the CMS and the many other missionary societies which have become associated or amalgamated with it over its lifetime.

The American Presbyterian Church was committed at its inception to the belief that it is a missionary church and that every member is a missionary. The establishment in 1837 of the Presbyterian Church's Board of Foreign Missions signaled the beginning of a worldwide missionary operation destined to embrace some fifteen countries in four different continents The records offered here provide invaluable information on social conditions in China and on efforts to spread the gospel during the nineteenth century. Documenting the church's educational, evangelical, and medical work, these are records mainly of incoming correspondence from the mission field and outgoing correspondence from the Board headquarters.

This fascinating collection compiles 12 subcollections of papers of American missionaries associated with Fujian and Taiwan in southeastern China, including their diaries, letters, newsletters, sermons, photographs, and manuscripts. The records chronicle daily life of their respective provinces, as well as administrative matters with churches back home in the United States.
James E. and Susan L. Skinner papers: James E. Skinner (1867-1959) and his wife Susan Lawrence Skinner (1871-1952) were Christian medical missionaries who served in China from 1897 to 1944. The collection contains correspondence, diaries, literary manuscripts, photographs and biographical materials.
Frank M. Toothaker papers: Frank M. Toothaker was a Methodist Episcopal missionary serving in Nanking, Kuling, Shanghai, Yenping, and Kuliang, China. Papers include 9 volumes of diaries, 1918-1926, 268 letters received, and 104 letters sent, 1918-1950. Publications with the papers include minutes of the Church's Yenping Conference, 1918, 1920-1922, 1924-1932, 1934-1936, and reports of the Church's Yenping Woman's Conference, 1927-1928, 1931, 1934-1935.
Charles Garnet Trimble papers: Charles G. Trimble (1884 - ) was a medical missionary in China. He was associated with the Methodist Mission in Foochow in 1914, and later with the Alden Speare Memorial Hospital in Yenping. The collection (1914-1964) contains correspondence, collected Chinese documents, and a few personal items.
Frederick Bankhardt diaries and correspondence: Frederick Barnhardt was a Methodist missionary in China associated with the Yenping Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The collection (1929-1949) contains nine volumes of diaries and minor correspondence. The 1929 diary describes Bankhardt's experiences as head of an orphanage in Berea, Ohio. The other diaries concern work in China. The diary entries are highly personal and reflect the spiritual problems peculiar to missionaries.
Russell Steininger papers: Russell Steininger (1896-1967) was a Methodist Episcopal missionary in Yenping and Foochow, China. Collection includes letters from Frederick Bankhardt and Lucerne Hoddinott.
Roland and Esther Schaefer papers： Roland and Esther Schaefer were missionaries to Yenping and Nanping, China. Collection includes correspondence, 1914-1968, photographs and miscellaneous publications for missionaries in China.
Arthur and Mabel Billing papers: Arthur William and Mabel Spohr Billing were Methodist missionaries to China, connected with the Union High School at Foochow (Fuzhou), Fukien (Fujian) Province. Collection comprises correspondence, Mabel Billing's diary (1939-1943), mission newsletters, minutes and other official records of the Foochow Conference of the Methodist Church, Foochow (Fuzhou) newspapers, Foochow Union High School pamphlets and photograph album, and a thesis by Portia Billings Foster on the high school.
Edwin Dwight Kellogg papers: Edwin Dwight Kellogg (1882-1952) was a Congregational minister in Forest Grove, Oregon, and a former missionary in China. The collection (1930-1952) contains sermons and also correspondence from China. There are about 800 sermons in two different sections. In the first section, the sermons are arranged by whether they are from the New Testament or the Old Testament. In the second section, the sermons are arranged by date given, 1937-1952. The collection also includes copies of fifteen letters written from Canton and Foochow, China, 1930-1931.
Edith Abel papers: Edith Abel was a Methodist Episcopal missionary to China serving at Ngu Cheng (Wucheng), 1915-1918 and Futsing, Fukien Province, 1925 and 1938-1945. This collection contains 2 letters from Edith F. Abel, 1941, 1944; clipping from Sheridan Post, containing Abel's first letter from China, 1916; Photo album containing captioned snapshots of Ngucheng school, n.d.; Foochow News, 1938.
Pauline E. Westcott papers: Pauline Westcott was a missionary to Hinghua, Hokkien. Collection contains 18 items: MINUTES/RECORDS/REPORTS: Chefoo Club, articles of association and bylaws, 1914; Methodist Church: Foochow Conference, yearbook and minutes, 1946; Hinghua Conference, minutes, 1901; Hinghwa Annual Conference, 1942, 1946–49; Hinghwa Conference, annual report, 1912; Hinghwa Women's Conference, minutes, 1909; Keen School, student annual, 1927; Tsinanfu Club, rules and bylaws, 1915; Women's Foreign Missionary Society (Pacific Branch), annual report, 1940; 70th anniversary, records, n.d. PAMPHLETS: The China Home Missionary Society, by Mary Ninde Gamewell, 1942; Straws from the Hinghwa Harvest, 1910; The Ting Hsien Experiment in 1934, 1934. SERIALS: Foochow News, 1935.
Thelma Mills papers: Thelma Mills was a teacher of English and choir in a Methodist missionary school in Tientsin, China, 1925-1927. She also organized the YWCA program in Taipei, Taiwan, 1968-1971. While in China (1925-1927), she observed the Chinese civil war. The collection contains diaries, correspondence, manuscripts, travel mementos, postcards, and photographs, 1925-1976. The two diaries Mills kept during the period 1925-1927 when she was in China mostly concern her friends, sister (who was the head of the Home Economics Department at Yenching University in Peking, China from 1922-1933), fellow teachers, school politics, travel, purchases, food, and social events. The eleven diaries from Taiwan (1968-1971) reveal information about business matters, travel, social events, purchases, and reactions of the people in Taiwan. Observations of political events are also included. Correspondence contains information and impressions of the civil war in China and also includes photographs of Chinese soldiers. Also available are over 900 photographs, including photos from China.
Joseph W. Dyson papers: Joseph W. Dyson (1889-1965) was a Southern Methodist missionary and educator at Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan (Formosa), from 1919 until 1949, and returned 1959-1965. The collection includes correspondence, diaries, publications, and photographs that reflect his work at the university, 1959-1965.

This collection consists of the papers of American missionary families who had spent years in China and India.
Sidney Sheldon was an engineer who taught at Nanyang University in Shanghai, China, from 1910 to 1927. His wife, Eunice Fife Sheldon, was the daughter of Elmer E. and Mary Theaker Fife, Presbyterian missionaries to India beginning in 1889. Elmer Fife founded what was later to be known as Gordon Christian College in Rawal Pindi in 1893.
Dr. Frederick Gilman Scovel (b. 1902) and his wife Myra Scovel (1905-1994) were medical missionaries for the United Presbyterian Church, who had spent almost thirty years in Tsining, Huai Yuan, and Canton in China; and Ludhiana, India.
Clarence Burton Day (1889-1987) was a Presbyterian missionary teacher at Hangchow College, China (1915-1943) and then at Forman Christian College, Lahore, India (now Pakistan) (1947-1951). He spent seven months in 1943 in a Japanese concentration camp in China before being repatriated on the Gripsholm.
Murray Scott Frame (d. 1918) was a Congregational missionary and teacher in Lahore, India and Beijing, China, where he witnessed the 1911 Republican Revolution. His brother, John Davidson Frame (b. 1880), was a medical missionary for the Presbyterian Church in Persia.

The most extensive database for mainland Chinese journal literature.

Taiwan Academic Classics (TAC) is the full-text inter-databases platform, which accommodates 10+ acclaimed archives, focusing on the research of humanities and social sciences in Taiwan. It is a full-text searchable platform of 3.2 billion characters, consist of 200,000+ dissertations, 6630+articles, and 330+journals. We subscribe to numerous "series" (collections) in this database including Sinica Sinoweb, Taiwan Journals, the Modern China database, Chinese calligraphy and inscription collections, Taiwan encyclopedia, Biaodian Gujin Tushu Jicheng (標點古今圖書集成)....

This is the Taipei National Central Library's database (國家圖書館）. Search for Taiwan published journal articles, a directory to Taiwanese periodicals, and other rich resources. [臺灣期刊論文索引系統; 中華民國出版期刊指南系統;近代 (1853-1979年) 港澳華文期刊索引; 漢學中心典藏大陸期刊論文索引].

Find Chinese language dissertations here with full downloadable options. Note, this site does not have an English version.

Searchable full text of headwords and major meanings for the entire dictionary (with everything else as images) on the Japan Knowledge platform. Be sure to log out after use.

The Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) is intended for students and scholars interested in any aspect, discipline or sub-region of Asia. Through its extensive bibliographical coverage, it is an excellent means for discovering citations and the full-text of Western-language journal articles, review articles, conference proceedings and chapters in edited volumes and Festschriften published anywhere in the world that deal with East, Southeast and South Asia and with the overseas Asian communities.

A powerful index of Chinese language books and articles. For some excellent UserGuides, please see the following: Princeton Guide; University of Washington Guide; and HKSYU guide.

Open-access database of publications from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences 中国社会科学院. Access is free but requires users to sign up for individual accounts.

The Harvard University Asia Center E-Book Collection is a collaboration between Brill and Harvard University Asia Center. This collection includes 523 titles published by Harvard University Asia Center. Nearly all titles belong to one of three monograph series: Harvard East Asian Monographs (419 titles), Harvard-Yenching Institute Monographs (about 90 titles), and the Harvard Contemporary China Series (about a dozen titles).

The International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) is an essential online resource for social science and interdisciplinary research. IBSS includes over six million bibliographic references to journal articles books, newspapers, dissertations and more dating back to 1951. It is unique in its broad coverage of international material and includes content in over 40 languages.

An abstracting and indexing database. Historical Abstracts is the definitive index of literature covering world history (excluding the United States and Canada) from the 15th century to the present.

Oxford Bibliographies online is a wonderful place to begin research as the articles are presented in annotated bibliography format with links to our Franklin collection.