Newspaper & Mailroom

ProQuest Advances Research on China with New Archive of Historical Newspapers

Wednesday 30. January 2013 - The most significant English-language papers to be digitized, providing access to more than a century of content

ProQuest is opening a new avenue for research into the history and culture of China through the digitization of a dozen of the country’s most important English-language newspapers. The collection of papers, including North China Herald, The China Press, The China Critic, and the China Weekly Review, provides a primary source chronicle of the country’s turbulent transition from Imperial rule to the founding of the Republic. The Chinese Newspapers Collection captures all editions published 1832 through 1953 from cover to cover and will be cross-searchable with all ProQuest Historical and Current Newspapers, as well as other historical resources.
“This collection provides a view of Chinese history as it unfolds, allowing readers to feel the immediacy and emotion of the events,” said Chris Cowan, Vice-President, ProQuest Information Solutions. “Being able to access information that’s unfiltered by time is a tremendous boon to researchers. We believe this archive will advance understanding of one of the world’s most fascinating countries.”
Through the Chinese Newspapers Collection researchers can explore the ending of more than 2000 years of imperial rule in China, the Taiping Rebellion, the Opium Wars with Great Britain, the Boxer Rebellion, and the events leading up to the 1911 Xinhai Revolution and the subsequent founding of the Republic of China. The collection is also a source of reports on China’s relationship with Japan, including the First and Second Sino-Japanese Wars leading up to World War II.
The addition of the Chinese Newspapers Collection is part of ProQuest’s larger newspaper content growth initiative. Access to historical Canadian newspaper content leaped forward in 2012, when ProQuest added the Globe and Mail to the Historical Newspapers archive. In April, the archives of Toronto Star, known as the “Paper for the People” and the largest daily newspaper in Canada, will be accessible and cross-searchable with ProQuest’s entire collection of newspapers from around the world.
ProQuest makes the world’s largest archive of newspaper content accessible to information-seekers through a digital environment that enables precision search, simple management and creative exploration.