Brill’s Encyclopedia of China Online

Brill’s Encyclopedia of China Online is based on the original 1000 page reference work on China (available in the East Asian Library reading room at SINOL. L 10 E 18) and has its main focus on China from the mid-19th century to the 21st century.

The encyclopedia consists of approximately 450 articles on a variety of topics, written by top scholars around the world. Articles, or entries, are grouped alphabetically, and can be linked to directly.

Brill’s website states there will be additions of statistical data and other new content added each year. Articles are thorough and use pinyin for Chinese terms – there are no Chinese characters anywhere in the text (that said, there haven’t been any Chinese characters in the printed version of the encyclopedia either…) Illustrations are scarce, and if you can find any (try ‘painting‘) they happen to be in black and white (!), differing from the illustrations in the printed encyclopedia.

That all put aside, Brill’s Encyclopedia of China Online is a good source for reliable information on the history, geography, society, economy, politics, science, and culture of China. At the end of each article there is a bibliographical list for further reading.

Asian Studies E-Books Online

From today, Leiden University has full access to Brill’s Asian Studies ebook collection 2007-2012, part of Brill’s platform for ebooks and journals called Brill Online books and journals.
Leiden University has always had a strong focus on Asian studies, and Brill’s Asian ebooks cover this subject perfectly. Many of Brill’s recent academic works on China, Japan and Korea are part of this collection, and some well known earlier publications are incorporated too.
All fulltext and searchable publications are available for download (PDF): either from inside our university, or after logging in from home with ULCN name and password.

Searching is easy by using the search screen and then restricting by subject or time of publication; it is also possible to search for chapters in books.

Here is the full list of the Asian Studies E-Books Online through Brill :

• Asian Studies ebooks online, collection 2016 (titles)
• Asian Studies ebooks online, collection 2015 (titles)
• Asian Studies ebooks online, collection 2014 (titles)
• Asian Studies ebooks online, collection 2013 (70 titles)
• Asian Studies ebooks online, collection 2012 (71 titles)
• Asian Studies ebooks online, collection 2011 (56 titles)
• Asian Studies ebooks online, collection 2010 (68 titles)
• Asian Studies ebooks online, collection 2009 (26 titles)
• Asian Studies ebooks online, collection 2008 (50 titles)
• Asian Studies ebooks online, collection 2007 (63 titles)

Books to be found in this large collection include, for example, Erik Zürcher’s The Buddhist Conquest of China; Van Crevel’s Chinese Poetry in Times of Mind, Mayhem and Money; Kevin M. Doak’s A History of Nationalism in Modern Japan; and Remco Breuker’s Establishing a Pluralist Society in Medieval Korea, 918-1170.