Chinese: Search and Display Hints

Chinese language records in the Library of Congress Online Catalog are mostly cataloged using both pinyin romanization script and Chinese characters. However, some older records are still in the Wade-Giles system, which was officially replaced by pinyin romanization system in October 2000.

In order to display records and view the non-Roman characters (like Chinese), please see help on Displaying Non-Roman Characters in the Online Catalog.

CJK Compatibility Database

Use the CJK Compatibility Database to quickly and conveniently replace non-MARC21 characters with MARC21 equivalents, or a missing character symbol.
- Link to the CJK Compatibility database
- More about the CJK Compatibility database

Searching in Chinese

There are two ways to search the records in Chinese:

• Enter search using romanized script (this may be faster and more efficient)
• Enter search using Chinese characters (search first in Chinese characters when you are unsure of the proper romanization of a title or a name, or the word spacing).

You must use the appropriate Input Method Editors (IMEs) to enter searches in Chinese characters (view more help on installing and using IMEs). *

No matter which method of searching you use, the resulting records will display the romanized script along with the Chinese characters (as long as both are present in the record -- see example above).

Tip for searching Chinese romanized script:

1. When searching in romanized pinyin script, pay special attention to the word division rules. Personal and geographical names are aggregated together.
   For example:

   Yang, Boda 杨伯达
   Ouyang, Xiu 欧阳修
   Zhongguo 中国
   Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Xiamen hai guan 中华人民共和国厦门海关
   Hebei Sheng 河北省

2. Title words should be separated. For example:

   Zhongguo tong ji nian jian 中国统计年鉴.

   For more details about the Chinese romanization system, see the Romanization Tables at: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/chinese.pdf.

Tip for searching Chinese characters:

1. When you are unsure of exact titles, search unique title words in Chinese characters. For example:
   城镇化，军舰，西部大开发, etc.
2. In case of personal names with the same pronunciation, search the name in Chinese characters. For example:
   
   instead of Wang, Yi, type characters, such as 王毅
   

Notes:

1) Subjects will not be searchable in Chinese.

2) Printing and saving work in exactly the same way. The records will display the romanized script along with the Chinese characters (when both are present in the record).

3) Emailing the record: if your search results contained diacritic marks or Chinese characters, your email will not contain complete information. Please choose to "save" or "print" your search results instead.

Use the browser's [Back] button to resume searching.

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