The Library has been given trial access to the primary source database China: Trade, Politics & Culture from Adam Matthew. So for a limited time only you have access to this fantastic digital collection of English-language primary sources relating to China and the West from 1793 to 1980.

You can access the database via the E-resources trials page. Access is available both on and off-campus.

Trial access ends 5th April 2017.

China: Trade, Politics & Culture provides access to manuscripts encompassing events from the earliest English embassy to the birth and early years of the People’s Republic, giving you unique insight into the changes wrought upon China during this period. Key documents relating to the Chinese Maritime Customs service are accessible and searchable alongside original reports of the Amherst and Macartney embassies. There are letters relating to the first Opium War, survivors’ descriptions of the Boxer War and tantalising glimpses of life in China from the collected diaries and personal photographs of the Bowra family. There are also significant sources describing the lives and work of missionaries in China from 1869-1970, including extensive and fully searchable runs of missionary periodicals.

The database gets much of its material from unique collections held at School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and the British Library but these are supplemented by sources from other libraries and archives such as Cambridge University Library, the Church Missionary Society Archive, Duke University, the National Archives at Kew, Yale Divinity Library and more.

The database can be accessed for the duration of the trial period via e-resources trials.
Access available until 5th April 2017.
Feedback welcome.

Access is only available to current students and staff at University of Edinburgh.

Caroline Stirling – Academic Support Librarian for History, Classics and Archaeology