(15 April 2014, Chicago) As China has evolved into an economic superpower, interest in its culture and current place in the world has skyrocketed; China Studies are now taught in almost every college or university in the U.S., as well as in many junior high and high schools. Covering modern China, not just Chinese culture from an historical perspective, “The ALA Guide to Researching Modern China,” published by ALA Editions, fills a sizeable gap in the literature. Originating as a Carnegie Whitney Award-winning book project, Yunshan Ye’s research guide goes beyond a mere list of print resources to reflect the predominant role of digital resources in the changing landscape of scholarly research, teaching critical information literacy concepts and skills in the field of China Studies by:
- sketching in basic facts and figures of Chinese history and culture from antiquity to the present;
- detailing key English- and Chinese-language resources in literature, government, statistics, art, film, history, philosophy, religion, economics, law, politics and more;
- offering strategies for finding research sources like articles and dissertations, as well as primary sources such as government documents and archives;
- including guidance on how to acquire print and electronic resources in Chinese.
Ye is the academic liaison librarian for anthropology, East Asian studies and political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
The announcement is here.