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Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a cross-post by Neely Tucker, Writing-Editor in the Library’s Office of Communications. It originally appeared on the Library of Congress Blog.) The Black Ship scrolls are a genre of Japanese paintings that captured the historic meeting of two alien cultures: That 1854 moment when U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry barged into Edo Bay …
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Qi Qiu, Head of Scholarly Services, Asian Division.) To share the rich pre-modern Chinese resources of the Library of Congress with a wider audience, the Library has presented 1,000 rare books online. The Chinese Rare Book Digital Collection includes the most valuable titles and editions housed in the Library’s Asian …
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Eiichi Ito, Japanese Reference Specialist, Asian Division.) Against a backdrop of increasing international awareness and recognition of indigenous groups through such milestones as the “United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples” in 2007, scholars in Japan and around the world have shown a growing interest in the study …
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Jonathan Loar, South Asian Reference Librarian, Asian Division) On June 28, 1914, the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie soon led to an unprecedented global conflict involving numerous nations and empires. Most people are probably familiar with World War I …
Posted in: Asian Division, South Asia, World War I
Posted by: Cameron Penwell
(The following is a post by Cameron Penwell, Japanese reference librarian, Asian Division.) In 1906, in the aftermath of its victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the imperial Japanese government set up the South Manchurian Railway Company (SMRC) to promote and manage Japanese interests on the Asian continent. It was incorporated with the legal designation …
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
(The following is a post by Tien Doan, Special Assistant to the Chief, Asian Division.) Lying inside the Asian Division rare book vault is a bound manuscript titled “The King of Siam Speaks,” written by two brothers, Seni and Kukrit Pramoj. The king in the title refers to King Mongkut (1804-1868), the 4th monarch of Siam …
Posted in: Asian Division, Southeast Asia