China and the Modern World

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of monographs, manuscripts, periodicals, correspondence and letters, historical photos, ephemera, and other kinds of historical documents, these collections provide excellent primary source materials for the understanding and research of the various aspects of China during the nineteenth and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.

With rare and unique content, trustworthy and extensive bibliographic information, and technology that fits the needs of today's researchers, China and the Modern World is poised to revolutionize research on China and the world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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Collections

China and the Modern World: Records of the Maritime Customs Service of China, 1854–1949

This primary source archive provides an excellent primary source collection, mainly in English, for the study of China and its relations with the Imperial West in the late Qing and Republican periods.

China and the Modern World: Missionary, Sinology, and Literary Periodicals, 1817–1949

This archive is the essential digital primary source collection for researchers of China in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, providing unique, firsthand accounts of the cultural interactions and conflicts that gave rise to today’s modern China.

China and the Modern World: Diplomacy and Political Secrets, 1869–1950

This primary source archive presents a valuable collection of primary source material carefully selected from the British India Office Records, covering Anglo-Chinese relations and the British interests in South Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia from 1869 to 1950. The collection comprises files selected from three series; the Political and Secret Department Records, the Burma Office Records, and the Records of Military Department.

China and the Modern World: Hong Kong, Britain, and China, Part I: 1841–1951

An essential primary source archive for researching the history of Hong Kong in the context of modern China and the British Empire in Asia from the inception of this British colony in the 1840s to the early 1950s immediately after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

Platform Features & Tools

Term Frequency

Researchers can see the frequency of search terms within sets of content to begin identifying central themes and assessing how individuals, places, events, and ideas interact and develop over time.

Topic Finder

By grouping commonly occurring themes, this tool reveals hidden connections within search terms—helping to shape research by integrating diverse content with relevant information.

Cross-Search Capability

Search across the content of complementary primary source products, including books, in one united, intuitive environment, enabling innovative new research connections.

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