Top of page

Category: Asian Division

Front page of Hindostan newspaper with Hindi text and illustration of submarine and ship in water.

Now Online: The WW1-Era POW Camp Newspaper “Hindostan” in Hindi and Urdu

Posted by: Joshua Kueh

The Library’s Asian Division is pleased to announce the digitization of the Hindi and Urdu editions of “Hindostan,” a propaganda newspaper for South Asian prisoners of war (POWs) held in Germany during World War I. The Asian Division is notable for having nearly complete runs of this pro-German newspaper, which was published in Berlin from March 1915 to August 1918. A total of 159 issues of the Hindi and Urdu editions are now freely available in the South Asian Digital Collection.

Red poster with white text.

The Posters of the Minjung Movement in the 1980s

Posted by: Ryan Wolfson-Ford

This blog post explores the posters included in the Minjuhwa Undong (South Korean Democratization Movement) collection housed in the Asian Division. It highlights how these posters, in conjunction with Minjung Art, vividly portray the key agents, objectives, and strategies of the democratization movement during the 1980s.

A Japanese-style hanging paper lantern with a human-looking face on it.

Ghost Stories from the Asian Reading Room

Posted by: Cameron Penwell

(The following is a collaborative post with contributions from Elli Kim, Korean Reference Librarian; Joshua Kueh, Southeast Asian Reference Librarian; Cameron Penwell, Japanese Reference Librarian; and Ryan Wolfson-Ford, Southeast Asian Reference Librarian) With Halloween now upon us, we thought it would be interesting to learn more about ghosts, ghouls, and things that go bump in …

Archival boxes shelved in a library stacks.

Indian Independence League Files in the World War II Records from Burma Collection

Posted by: Ryan Wolfson-Ford

“World War II Records from Burma” is a diverse and unique grouping of documentary materials in the Southeast Asian Rare Book Collection. This post highlights documents from the collection concerning the Indian Independence League and Indian National Army, two Indian diaspora organizations that emerged prior to and during World War II.

Image depicts three newspaper advertisements in Telugu and English.

Finance, Flight, and Fridge: Exploring the advertisements in “Iṇḍiyā Tuḍē: Vārṣika Sāhitya Sañcika”

Posted by: Joshua Kueh

Asian Division 2024 Junior Fellow Akhila Gunturu shares her experience inventorying serials on microfiche in the South Asian Collection. The post highlights the collection’s various uses through an analysis of the advertisements in the Telugu periodical Iṇḍiyā Tuḍē: Vārṣika Sāhitya Sañcika (India Today: Annual Literary Issue).

Image of shelves of Southeast Asian books.

Southeast Asian Collections at the Library of Congress: Reference Librarians Answer Frequently Asked Questions

Posted by: Joshua Kueh

This post features answers to frequently asked questions about the Southeast Asian collections at the Library of Congress provided by the Library’s Southeast Asian reference librarians. Librarians touch on types of Southeast Asian materials available, who uses the collections, how the Library acquires its holdings, and how to access them.