EAST ASIA
Chinese
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Calligraphy
of Mao Tse-tung. The People's
Republic of China printed only 500 copies of this large
book of
Mao
Tse-tung's
poetry
and calligraphy, using them as presentation books during
official visits. This copy was donated to the Library by
Dr. Chi Wang, who received it in 1989 from Prof. Hu Qiao
Mu, Mao's personal secretary for over nineteen years. Here
Mao has copied a poem by a famous Sung Dynasty general,
Yüeh Fei. (Chinese Rare Book Collection, Asian
Division) |
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War and revolution in China during much of the first half of the twentieth century provided both unique collection opportunities and serious problems for the Library's Chinese collections. On the positive side, the Library was able to obtain the only copies of some four thousand unique and valuable publications issued by both the Nationalist and the Communist sides during the war years from 1939 to 1945. These publications cover subjects ranging from the social sciences and government to military strategy and wartime propaganda. The material includes valuable Chinese Communist Party publications concerning party policies in the areas of northwest China under its control during World War II. Literary works are another particularly rich part of this collection, especially a number of modern Chinese plays written in the wartime capital of Chongqing. Included are works by the well-known writers Lao She (author of Rickshaw
Boy) and CaoYu (Sunrise and Thunderstorm).
After the Communist victory in 1949 and the resulting rupture of contacts
between the United States and the People's Republic of China (PRC), acquiring
current Chinese mainland publications became very difficult.
Chinese publications
from Taiwan continued to flow, but from 1950 to 1975 the Library
had to purchase all its mainland Chinese publications through either Hong
Kong
or Japan. Despite these difficulties, the Library acquired
probably the best holdings on the PRC available in the West during the
1950s and 1960s.
Through the Department of State's publications procurement
program, the Consulate General in Hong Kong was able to buy large amounts
of material
published in China that it shared with the Library. Of special
interest from that period are the Library's holdings of some six hundred
to seven
hundred provincial newspapers. Because of its excellent collection
of PRC publications, the Library became a center for China-watchers during
the 1950s and 1960s, with many American graduate students using
the material
for M.A. theses or Ph.D. dissertations.
Following the 1972 visit to China of President Nixon, the Library reopened
its contact with the National Library of Beijing, signing the
first formal exchange agreement in 1979. From 1980 until 1987, the Library
received
a massive influx of Chinese publications, averaging some
twenty-four
thousand titles each year, through this exchange agreement.
Holdings on contemporary China underwent a major expansion in the opening
years of the 21st century. Through a five-year grant from the
Henry Luce Foundation, the Library undertook a major effort to increase
its coverage of modern
China and fill some significant gaps in the collections.
Using a system of regional acquisition associates throughout
China, the
Library
obtained
publications on a number key subjects, notably the Chinese
Communist Party, military affairs and national security,
politics and government, U.S.-China
relations and economic, trade and finance issues. In view
of the success of the Luce Project, the Library has kept the
Project's local
Chinese
acquisition system in place, using the regular Library
budget.
Additionally, there are significant holdings of photographs of
China in the
Prints and Photographs Division, Chinese maps in the Geography
and Map Division,
and unique material in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting,
and Recorded Sound Division.
Electronic Resources: The Chinese collections include a number of electronic
databases, primarily continuing subscriptions that can only be accessed
from the Asia Division Reading Room. These include China Academic Journals
(CAJ) and China Core Newspaper Database (CCND) from the China National
Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Wanfang's Academic Conferences in
China (ACIC) and Dissertations of China (DOC). An electronic version of
People's Daily, the official organ of the Chinese Communist Party, is
also available, starting from its first issue in May 1946. In addition,
researchers will find databases from the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, including
Chinese Civilization in Time and Space. The latter incorporates images
of 21,000 Chinese maps and 840 aerial photographs from the Library's map
collections that were digitized under an agreement between the Library
and Academia Sinica. In addition, the Library entered into an agreement
with Taiwan's National Central Library to digitize the Asian Division's
rare Chinese books. Under the agreement, the two libraries will share
each other's digitized databases of rare books, making them readily available
to researchers.
Japanese:
The traditional Japanese world entered a
period of rapid modernization beginning with the Meiji Restoration
in 1868. Although Japan's role in East Asia continued to become
more important, it was not until the 1930s that serious academic
study of Japan began in the United States. This decade marked
the growing tensions in relations between the United States and
Japan. Dr. Sakanishi Shiho at the Library of Congress played
an active role not only in building the Library's Japanese collections
but also in promoting Japanese studies in the United States.
Born in Tokyo, Sakanishi held a
Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and had been an assistant
professor at Hollins College in Virginia before starting at the
Library in 1930. Her personal story is intertwined with the tragic
story of World War II in the Pacific. Dr. Sakanishi's tireless
efforts to encourage Japanese studies and her close relations
with the Japanese Embassy in Washington apparently put her high
on the FBI's list of "enemy aliens." Federal officers arrested
Sakanishi on December 7, 1941, holding her in a detention camp
until June 1942 when she was sent to Japan as part of an exchange
of prisoners.
With the end of World War II, the Library's holdings of Japanese
material increased rapidly and are today the most extensive collection
outside Japan. Valuable Japanese government records that throw
light on Japanese decision making before the war were transferred
to the Library from the Washington Documents Center. Among them
are records from the former Japanese Imperial Army and Navy,
the South Manchuria Railway Company, and the East Asian Research
Institute (Toa Kenkyujo). The Library has a microfilm copy
of the archives of the Japanese Foreign Ministry from 1868 to
1945 that was used, for example, in John Toland's history of
the fall of the Japanese Empire, The Rising Sun. Japanese
scholars have also used the Library's pre-1945 records of the
Police Bureau of Japan's Ministry of Home Affairs. Complementing
this rich resource are maps in the Geography and Map Division
that provide insight into the early period of Japanese expansion
in northeast Asia. These include a collection of Japanese Army
manuscript route maps of Korea and China prepared from 1878 to
the 1880s and manuscript maps concerning the Russo-Japanese War
(1904-1905) from Theodore Roosevelt's papers.
At present, the Japanese collection has over one million books
and serials. Its holdings include major Japanese newspapers such
as Asahi shinbun, Yomiuri shinbun, and Nikkei
Weekly. Japanese material in other divisions of the Library
includes pre-1946 newsreels and movies in the Motion Picture,
Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division; posters, ukiyo- e,
other prints, and photographs in the Prints and Photographs Division;
technical reports in the Science and Technology Division; and
recorded music and scores in the Music Division.
Electronic Resources: In close cooperation with Nichibunken (the International Research Center of Japanese Studies), the
Asian Division has digitized its rare collection of Nara Ehon,
a type of illustrated manuscript books produced from the 14th
century to the middle of the Edo period (1615-1868) and considered
to be the earliest popular illustrated books in Japan. Researchers
may now access some 2,000 digital images, including 173 color
illustrations, from the Nara Ehon. With the support of the Nichibunken,
the Asian Division has also digitized its rare 1654 illustrated
edition of The Tale of Genji. Nichibunken has also supported
the Library in scanning the large collection of Japanese prints
(Ukiyo-e) held in the Prints and Photographs Division. Finally,
in cooperation with the Japan Map Center, the early 19th-century
map of Japan's coastline by Japan's first modern cartographer,
Inoh Tadataka,
has been digitized and may be found in the Geography
and Map Division’s online map collection.
Subscription databases for the Japanese collection include the
Directory of Japanese Scientific Periodicals and the Kodansha
Encyclopedia of Japan as well as full-text databases of major
Japanese newspapers.
Korean
Choson Yujok Yumul Togam (Illustrated
Book of Ruins and Relics of Korea). Because of the closed
nature of North Korean society, the outside world has little
information on Korean artifacts held in the north. This
seventeen-volume set, published in Pyongyang in 1994, was,
therefore, welcomed by art collectors and other specialists.
Ceramics are among the most important of Korea's artistic
achievements, and volume 12 is devoted to the unique
ceramics of the Koryo period (918-1392), widely admired for their
beautiful colors and design. (Korean Collection, Asian Division)
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The Library began systematic acquisition of Korean-language
publications in 1950 and now has the largest and most comprehensive
collection outside of East Asia, including books, periodicals,
and some two hundred fifty different newspapers that go back
to the 1920s. The collection covers a broad range of topics,
from the classics, history, literature and arts to social and
natural sciences. Through a 1966 exchange agreement between the
United States and the Republic of Korea, the Library has an especially
strong collection of Korean government publications. Another
strength of the contemporary collection is Korean trade publications,
systematically built up since 1955. The Library also holds Korean
material that is hard to find elsewhere, such as its collection
of “gray material” in the Minjuhwa Undong Collection
of publications banned by earlier South Korean governments. In
addition, copies of some material that disappeared during the
destruction of the Korean War may be found in the Korean collections.
Examples include newspapers published by the North Korean communists
during their occupation of Seoul as well as Korean communist
textbooks.
The Christian religion plays a prominent role in modern South
Korean society, with Christians accounting for about 25% of South
Korea's 48.8 million people. Originally entering Korea in the
late 18th century through the writings of Jesuits in Beijing,
Roman Catholicism remained the dominant form of Christianity
until the arrival of American missionaries in 1884 began the
shift towards Protestantism. Through its sponsorship of medical
care and education, as well as its close identification with
Korean nationalism during the Japanese occupation, Protestantism
gained a firm foothold in Korean society. The roots of this influence
are reflected in the Library's collection of early Christian
Korean publications, spanning the years 1884 to 1927.
North Korea, or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is
probably the most secretive society in the modern world. The
Asian Division's 10,000 items from North Korea are therefore
vital to scholars and government officials trying to understand
developments in the north. The Library receives the two major
North Korean newspapers--one a government paper and the other
the party paper--as well as about 200 periodicals.
The Soviet Koreans. Example of the biographic information
on the purged faction of the Korean Communist Party that
fled to Tashkent in the late1950s. This is a 1952 family
photo of Ho Ka-I (1908-1953) who was deputy chairman of
the Party and deputy premier. He “went missing” in
North Korea in 1953. Ho Ri-ra, his second daughter (right
back row), asserts, “my father was assassinated."(Korean
Collection, Asian Division)
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A unique collection of materials that sheds light on the little-understood
history of the Korean Communist Party came into the Library’s
possession in 2005. In the wake of the Japanese occupation of
Korea in 1905, many Korean nationalists fled the country, including
a group that went to Russian Central Asia, settling in Tashkent,
Uzbekistan. Members of this group of “Soviet Koreans” returned
to join other factions of the Korean Communist Party after World
War II and played a prominent part in the Korean War (1950-54).
However, beginning in early 1957, Kim Il Sung ruthlessly purged
leaders of the Soviet faction (as well as members of the Yenan
faction that had been close to the Chinese Communist Party).
Facing arrest or possible execution, members of the Soviet-Korean
faction returned to Uzbekistan, where their families remain to
this day. The Library’s material consists of handwritten
biographical sketches of eighty Soviet Korean Party leaders with
portraits and pictures. The documents are accessible through
the Asian Division’s homepage (www.loc.gov/rr/asian).
Electronic Resources: Recent acquisitions include the Chosun
Daily Newspaper Archive, the Korean Studies Database, the Korean
Studies Information Service System, the DBPia, the National
Assembly Library Database, and Law n B - Korean Law
Database (available
only in the Law Library reading room). Also, Korean Bibliography,
that includes some 8,000 English-language publications, and Korean
Serials, with some 6,600 periodical titles (including 200 North
Korean), are accessible through the Asian Division's homepage.
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