A Hundred Harvests: Center for Chinese Studies Library Collections

The Center for Chinese Studies Library

The Center for Chinese Studies Library was established in 1957 as an off-campus reading room affiliated with the Center for Chinese Studies. At a time when the political biases of the McCarthy era made communist-published materials extremely difficult to obtain, the reading room provided scholars of mainland China access to crucial research materials unavailable on campus or elsewhere. The reading room quickly grew into a full research library and moved on campus in 1972, and gained branch library status in the early 1980's.

The CCSL now houses one of the premier research collections on contemporary mainland Chinese affairs. The library's holdings consist of over 60,000 volumes of books, 200 current periodical titles, and over 1,500 videotapes. The collection consists of approximately 85% Chinese-language and 15% English-language materials. The focus of the collection is primarily on post-1949 Chinese society, politics and government, economics, military, and law. CCSL collections of particular note include the New Local Histories collection, the Wen Shih Tzu Liao Literary and Historical Materials collection, the Communist Party Organizational Histories collection, and the Chinese film collection.

Color Print

T'i Kao Ching T'i, Pao Wei Tsu Kuo. (Heighten Our Vigilance and Defend Our Country)
This colorful print depicting a People's Liberation Army soldier giving guidance to Chinese peasants is typical of the kind of print which adorned many Chinese homes during the Cultural Revolution.

New Local Histories

Hsin Ti Fang Chih
A publishing project initiated in the mid-1980's and modeled after similar projects in Imperial China, the New Local Histories provide invaluable source material on regional history, economy, geography, and local customs at the provincial and county levels. With holdings already covering nearly half the 2,400 counties in China, the Center for Chinese Studies Library aspires to collect a complete set of New Local Histories after publication is completed in the year 2,000.

Ching-k'ou Ch'u Chin (Jingkou District History), 1992
An-fu Hsien Chih (Anfu County History), 1995
P'eng-lai Hsien Chuh (Penglai County History), 1995

Periodicals

CCSL currently subscribes to over 200 popular and academic periodical titles, as well as social science titles from the People's University Reprint series. Additionally, CCSL houses over 3,000 reels of microfilmed periodical titles, including the major newspapers from provinces south of the Yangtze River.

Ch'ing Ch'un Ch'ao (Wave of Spring), 1996:5
Chia T'ing (Family), 1997:1
Jen Min Ching Ch'a (People's Police), 1997:1

Red Guard Alarm Clock

This "Worker-Peasant" brand alarm clock from the Cultural Revolution lends new meaning to the concept of "awakening the masses." When wound, the Red Guard at the bottom left waves her Little Red Book in time with the second hand.

Literary and Historical Materials Collection

Wen Shih Tzu Liao.
Beginning publication on the national level in 1960 and expanding to the provincial and county level in the 1970's and 1980's, the Wen Shih Tzu Liao Literary and Historical Materials project is a continuing series of oral histories, biographies, and eyewitness accounts of twenthieth-century events. The Wen Shih Tzu Liao volumes are quite rare outside of China and are highly useful as primary source materials for historians and other researchers. CCSL has initiated a three stage acquisition of 15,000 volumes to be completed over the next several years, making U.C. Berkeley's collection one of the only two complete collections in the world.

Chung T'ung T'e Kung Mi Lu: Chiang-su Wen Shih Tzu Liao Ti Ssu Su Chi, (KMT Central Investigative and Statistical Bureau Secret Service; Jiangsu Literary and Historical Materials no. 45), 1991.

Min kuo k'ung chung ti hang chi; chiang-su wen shih tzu liao ti ssu shih ch'i chi (Flightpath of the Nationalist Air Force: Jiangsu Literary and Historical Materials no. 47), 1992

I yen-an: hsi-an wen shih tzu liao ti shih ch'i chi (Remembering Yan'an: Xi'an Literary and Historical Materials no. 17), 1991

Chinese Community Party Organizational Histories

Chung-Kuo Kung Ch'an Tang Tsu Chih Shih Tzu Liao
These classified organizational histories, published by the Chinese Communist Party, provide the "Kremlinologist" excellent source material on CCP history and affairs. CCSL owns all provincial level volumes published to date.
Chinese Communist Party Fujian Province Organizational History, 1992.

Chinese Film Collection

The Center for Chinese Studies Library houses over 1,500 video tapes in VHS and PAL formats including feature films, documentaries, and videotapes of China's CCTV broadcasts. Feature films in the library's circulating collection span five decades of Chinese filmmaking.

San Mao Liu Lang Chi (The Story of Orphan San Mao), 1949
Tang Ti Nu Erh (Daughter of the Party), 1958
Lao Ching (Old Well), 1989

Revolutionary Comic Books

These revolutionary comic books from the Cultural Revolution provided politically correct entertainiment for young and old alike.

Nung Ts'un Fu Nu P'u Chan Ko (Battle Cry of the Village Women), 1969

Wu Ch'an Chieh Chi Hsien Feng Chan Shih Huang Miao-Lang (Proletarian Vanguard Soldier Huang Miao-lang), 1970

Yung Yuan Chin Wo Shou Chung Ch'iang (Always Firmly Grasp the Gun in Your Hand), 1971

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