Newsletter No. 20

No.20 July 91 CUHK Newsletter Changing Role as a Library of Publications on China Towards the end of the seventies, China opened its doors to the outside world andChina scholars throughout the world were able to fulfil their dreams and observe China at first hand. Not surprisingly, demand for the research facilities at the centre slackened, but John Dolfin, the director at that time, began with considerable foresight to promote another of the centre's strong points: collecting materials. Despite the limited budget of the centre, and relying mainly on the tenacity and energy of the staff, he built it up into one of the world's most comprehensive collections of publications on China. Foreign scholars in China usually find that they must adapt patiently to the varying degrees of bureaucracy with which they are often faced when trying to gather materials for their research. Many of them return home via Hong Kong and call in at the famous centre. They are usually pleasantly surprised at the completeness and accessibility of the collection, having searched far and wide for just such a library. The centre possibly possesses the most complete and comprehensive collection of post-1949 Chinese material in the world, including entire runs of many national and local Chinese newspapers. For example, it has the People'sDaily from its first edition on 15th May 1946 up to the present, and also other provincial newspapers which were first published in the early fifties. Of the 300 Chinese newspapers currently subscribed to by the centre, 28 are from Guangdong Province, 27 from Shanghai, and 10 from Sichuan Province. These are all invaluable primary sources of information for those engaged in regional research. The centre also subscribes to some 1,200 periodicals, amongst which can be found the usual social science and humanities journals, and also a rare collection of local Chinese periodicals that may well not be available in other libraries outside China. There is also a valuable collection of provincial yearbooks and other statistical data dating from the mid-eighties. Recently published county annals are also being collected now, along with international publications on China. Translations of Chinese periodicals and broadcasts edited in England or America, English translations ofdaily newspapers, and research works in Chinese or English can also be studied at the centre. There are over 5,000 volumes in the English section of the library, and more than 20,000 volumes in the Chinese section. 5