With the kind support from the Confucius Institute for Scotland, the Library has just purchased the complete digital archive of the Shen Bao Chinese newspaper (申報) which was published in Shanghai between 1872 and 1949.

The following description is provided by the database supplier East View Information Services Inc.:

“Established in 1872, Shen Bao (historically transliterated as Shun Pao or Shen-pao) was the most influential and longest lasting commercial newspaper before the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949. The newspaper was founded by Englishman Ernest Major, but, uniquely, was written by Chinese reporters for Chinese readers.

During its existence, Shen Bao gradually shifted from a conservative to a more liberal perspective, and played a pivotal role in the formation of public opinion in the imperial period and into the tumultuous beginnings of modern China.

Shen Bao‘s innovations in printing technologies, specialized use of the telegraph, and dispatch of special military correspondents gave it an edge, and today that valuable insight is preserved and made available in the Shen Bao Digital Archive.

The Shen Bao Digital Archive is an invaluable research tool, presenting the complete collection of all issues, from the newspaper’s founding in 1872 to 1949. Containing more than 2 million articles, the database is 100% full-text searchable and contains the full-image of each page. Both the full-text and the full-image are retrieved in a single search, and full text may be easily copied from the full-image as well.”