chat is offline

East Asian Studies

The following is a selected list of resources for starting research in East Asian Studies. 

Starting Your Research

These sources can help you identify a topic for your research. Some provide an overview of a specific issue and suggest other materials which might be useful for your research. Others help you to notice a topic that might be of interest to you. By far the best resource you have for a research topic is your instructor or advisor. Some topics may seem exciting and ripe for research; however, these topics may be untouched because so little research information is available. Your instructor knows what is possible and what is not.

JAPAN

  • Bibliography of Asian Studies
    The BAS is considered to be THE bibliography for the study of Asia in the U.S. Use the BAS to get a grasp on some of the more recent topics studied and published as articles.
  • MagazinePlus is the primary index of Japanese periodical literature. This index covers 8,500 journals and 5,000 chapters of books published in Japan. All subject fields are covered: humanities and social sciences, technology, science, and medicine.
    • The index includes the following index databases:
    • Kinen Ronbunshu (1945-1992)
    • Ippan Ronbunshu (1945-1992)
    • Ippanshi, Sogoshi, bijinesushi (1981-)
    • Sympojumu Koenshu (1945-1992)
    • Gakkai Nenpo, Kenkyu Hokoku (1945-1995)

SEARCH TIPS: 1) Search can be made on keywords, titles, authors/editors, journal name, publisher, ISSN. 2) Terms can be entered in kanji, hiragana, katakana, roman letters and numerals.

     

CHINA

  • Aside from consulting your advisor/instructor, a good source of potential research targets can be gleaned from the Bibliography of Asian Studies, which is the standard bibliography for Western language articles in the field of Asian studies.

KOREA

  •  Aside from consulting your advisor/instructor, a good source of potential research targets can be gleaned from the Bibliography of Asian Studies which is the standard bibliography for Western language articles in the field of Asian studies.
  • Another fine resource for getting a feel of the research terrain is The Harvard Korean Studies Bibliography (1999), located on the 4th floor at Knight  Z3316 .H37 1999

Subject Encyclopedias

JAPAN

  • JapanKnowledge is a portal to Japanese encyclopedias, dictionaries, and databases.
  • The Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan; REFERENCE DS805.K633
    A standard reference work that should provide quick reference in most instances. Indeed, if you need quick information, this is probably the first work to consult.
  • Also consider looking at Japan Encyclopedia; REFERENCE DS821.F73 2002
  • If you are seeking information on Japanese history, an easy place to check for brief information is: Dictionary of Japanese History (1968) REFERENCE DS833.G63

CHINA

  • China: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary; REFERENCE DS733.C58523 1998
    This is a well-organized work in dictionary format that touches the major aspects of Chinese life and history; it's particularly useful because terms and names are given in both English and Chinese characters.
  • Also see: Modern China: A Guide to a Century of Change; REFERENCE DS774.H796 2001

KOREA

  • Korea (J.E. Hoare); REFERENCE DS902.12.12.A63 1997

Finding Articles

To look for articles in journals, newspapers, or magazines, you will need to start with an index. An index will allow you to look by subject or a few keywords which describe your topic or by author. Use the indexes listed above in "Starting Research" to locate journal/magazine articles that might be useful to your project.

It's a good scholarly habit to periodically browse through the table of contents of current journals.  Scanning the contents of current journals in Chinese and Japanese is easy. Against the west wall of the Asian Collection on the Knight Library's second floor is a section that displays popular current periodicals. These journals are in Chinese or Japanese - although some journals will have tables of contents or even abstracts in English.

JAPAN

  • Bibliography of Asian Studies
    The BAS is considered to be THE bibliography for the study of Asia in the U.S. Use the BAS to get a grasp on some of the more recent topics studied and published as articles.
  • MagazinePlus is the primary index of Japanese periodical literature. This index covers 8,500 journals and 5,000 chapters of books published in Japan. All subject fields are covered: humanities and social sciences, technology, science, and medicine.
    • The index includes the following index databases:
    • Kinen Ronbunshu (1945-1992)
    • Ippan Ronbunshu (1945-1992)
    • Ippanshi, Sogoshi, bijinesushi (1981-)
    • Sympojumu Koenshu (1945-1992)
    • Gakkai Nenpo, Kenkyu Hokoku (1945-1995)

SEARCH TIPS: 1) Search can be made on keywords, titles, authors/editors, journal name, publisher, ISSN. 2) Terms can be entered in kanji, hiragana, katakana, roman letters and numerals.

     

CHINA

KOREA

  • Bibliography of Asian Studies
    The BAS is considered to be THE bibliography for the study of Asia in the U.S. Use the BAS to get a grasp on some of the more recent topics studied and published as articles.

Return to top

Finding BOOKS

  • UO Library Catalog
    Identify books by topic, title or author; identify journals and magazines owned by the UO Library. To find journal articles on your topic, use the databases listed in the section above. Once you have a citation, use FindText to determine if the UO Libraries has access. 
  • Orbis Union Catalog
    Orbis is a consortium of academic libraries in the Pacific Northwest . You can borrow books not owned by the UO Library by selecting the Request Item option. Orbis works only for books. If you want to request a journal articles, you'll need to fill out an interlibrary loan form.
  • WorldCat
    Worldcat provides access to library catalogs from around the world. The database contains bibliographic records describing books, journals, maps, musical scores, manuscripts, etc. Please note that WorldCat can handle search requests and display of items in Japanese and both simplified and traditional Chinese characters.
  • PRINTED CATALOGS IN THE ASIAN COLLECTION REFERENCE AREA ON SECOND FLOOR. The Asian Collection has printed catalogs for the major East Asian Library collections in this country. If you prefer the print to the electronic (in some cases browsing the print is easier than browsing the electronic) these multi-volume sets are necessary to locating books that may not be in out local collection.

Return to top

Web Resources

JAPAN

CHINA

  • e-Asia: A site that offers over 650 e-books relating to Asia as well as images, MP3, and maps.
  • Internet Guide for China Studies: Perhaps the best guide to scholarly resources on the Web; maintained at the University of Heidelberg.
  • The best search engine currently available for any language is Google. If you wish to conduct your search in Chinese (either simplified or traditional) go to Google's language tools page; otherwise your everyday Google works just fine for English language materials.

KOREA

  • E-Korea Studies: an integrated online portal service supporting a single search interface to access nine electronic databases that provide Korean language resources in a broad range of academic disciplines.
  • e-Asia: A site that offers over 650 e-books relating to Asia as well as images, MP3, and maps.
  • Formerly known as Frank Hoffman's Korea Guide, the Koreaweb.ws is the first place you should go for web resources on Korea.
  • The best search engine currently available for any language is Google. If you wish to conduct your search in Korean go to Google's language tools page; otherwise your everyday Google works just fine for English language materials.
Maintained by: Paul Frantz, pfrantz@uoregon.edu
Last Modified: 03/05/2012