(The following is a post by Eiichi Ito, Japanese Reference Specialist, Asian Division.) The Library of Congress recently launched the Japanese Censorship Collection, an online archive comprising more than one thousand marked-up copies of government-censored monographs and galley proofs from prewar Japan. All the digitized materials in this collection are currently available for viewing onsite, …
(The following is a post by Tien Doan, Special Assistant to the Chief, Asian Division.) The history of European interaction with Vietnam can be traced back to “The Travels of Marco Polo,” which records, in the late 1280s, the noted Italian explorer’s experiences traveling through the area, that is modern Vietnam. More than one-hundred versions …
(The following is post by Jonathan Loar, South Asian Reference Librarian, Asian Division) In 1938, the Library of Congress received a three-year grant from the Carnegie Corporation to establish a project for the development of Indic studies, which was the Library’s first initiative to collect South Asian materials systematically. This grant enabled the project’s director, …
(The following is a post by Cameron Penwell, Japanese Reference Librarian, Asian Division) On a shelf in the Japan rare book cage sits a small, unassuming wooden box next to a carefully preserved and tightly rolled scroll. Unfurled, the scroll reveals a hand-written Japanese text alongside fanciful images of anthropomorphic animals that together portray the …
(The following is a post by Qi Qiu, Head of Scholarly Services, Asian Division.) With an estimated 1.2 million volumes, the Asian Division of the Library of Congress maintains the largest collection of Chinese-language materials outside of mainland China and Taiwan. The Library was also among the earliest institutions in America to collect Chinese materials. …
(The following is a post by Nuzhat Khatoon, South Asian Reference Specialist, Asian Division) In Delhi’s Coronation Park on January 1, 1877, the British monarch Queen Victoria (1837-1901) assumed a new title: Qaisar-i Hind, the Empress of India. Victoria’s proclamation was the central event of the jalsah-i qaisari, a massive imperial assemblage otherwise known in …
(The following is a post by Sonya Lee, Reference Specialist, Korean Collection, Asian Division) The Korean War Propaganda Leaflet Collection in the Asian Division of the Library of Congress provides a unique look into an aspect of that conflict that is often overlooked: psychological warfare. The aim of psychological warfare, or psywar, is to gain …
(The following is a post by Hong Ta-Moore, Reference Librarian, Asian Division.) In 1865, America experienced major social and political changes: President Lincoln was assassinated; the American Civil War ended; and the 13th Amendment to abolish slavery in the United States became law. Unrelated to all these changes, Congress authorized, that same year, additional funding …
(The following is a post by Jeffrey Wang, Reference Specialist for the Chinese Collection, Asian Division.) In the course of the last six hundred years, many masterpieces of Chinese fiction have become classics and wielded tremendous influence over the thoughts and imagination of the Chinese people. Among them is the “Story of Water Margin” (水滸傳), …
