The Eastern Miscellany

One of the most important publications of Republican-era China

The Eastern Miscellany online database presents the complete archive of one of the most significant publications of the Chinese intelligentsia in the first half of the twentieth century and a significant chronicle of Republican-era China in superbly produced full-image and full-text format with rich indexing. The Eastern Miscellany, as it is known in English, and formally entitled Dongfang zazhi (東方雜誌), was published by The Commercial Press [上海商務印書館], one of the most venerated academic publishers in China, from 1904-1948—a period that predates and entirely covers China’s Republican era (1912-1948). This coincides with a period of extraordinary transition in Chinese society, from the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and two millennia of Imperial China, through periods of warlord rule, Japanese invasion, the Second World War, communist revolution, and the formation of today’s People’s Republic of China.

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Eastern Miscellany

Key Stats

  • Archive: 1904-1948
  • Language: Traditional Chinese; Simplified Chinese interface
  • Country: China
  • Format: Full text and full image
  • Producer: The Commercial Press (in collaboration with TKN)
  • Platform: Custom-built by TKN

About The Eastern Miscellany

The Eastern Miscellany generated over 45 volume years of content (interrupted only in 1942) and was issued in Shanghai, Changsha, Chongqing, and Hong Kong. Initially a monthly publication, it was issued biweekly for a period, and later returned to being a monthly. This exhaustive online archive of the content includes more than 30,000 articles, 12,000 illustrations and more than 14,000 advertisements, all of which are zoned for targeted search. All content is in Chinese, though there are articles presented by a number of foreign authors.

The Eastern Miscellany platform was custom built for The Commercial Press by Tongfang Knowledge Network (TKN), maker of CNKI. However, please note that The Eastern Miscellany database is not on the same KNS platform as CNKI and is not presently cross-searchable with other resources offered by TKN. The platform offers robust Advanced Search options, with 100% of the content searchable in full text. The content is also 100% browseable, including covers, and 100% of the publication’s pages, including illustrations and richly graphical advertisements are presented in full image as well. Advanced search options include: stackable Boolean operators such as ‘x AND y but NOT z’; find in: title, article text, advertisement, etc.; offers assisted input for Chinese character lookup, and indexed suggestions of thematic keywords, personal names, etc. that appear in the content; delimit search a specific section or article type. Use of The Eastern Miscellany database does NOT require the use or installation of any plug-ins or software.

Related Resources

Century Journals Project (CJP)
China Comprehensive Gazetteers
Shen Bao Digital Archive

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