China

China

Major locations

• Canton
• Hong Kong
• Macao
• Peking (Beijing)
• Shanghai

History

• The Opium Wars:

• 1st China War 1839-42
• 2nd China War 1856-60

• 3rd China War 1898-1901
• Taiping Rebellion 1850-64
• China (First World War)

Records

• See General Register Office, UK. Also included are references to records at Lambeth Palace Library, London, and London Metropolitan Archives.
• China Families, previously called China Coast Family History, (and part of the Chinese Maritime Customs project, University of Bristol, refer External links below). The website provides "a growing body of information about men and women of many different nationalities, professions and ages, who lived and worked in China between the 1850s and 1940s. These records have been drawn from government department lists, legal and diplomatic records, cemetery lists, and during research undertaken for a number of projects on the history of modern China and of the foreign relations of China". There is a Search facility and links to a number of online Directories.
• FamilySearch: Indexed Historical Records: China. See FamilySearch for more about this free website.

There are some records for China in the "World Miscellaneous" records on FamilySearch (source unspecified) which may be accessed through the following links: World Miscellaneous Births and Baptisms, World Miscellaneous Marriages, World Miscellaneous Deaths and Burials.

Additionally, Search the FamilySearch Catalog for microfilm/digitised microfilm records relating to China by using keywords such as China, and selecting Availability Online. Sign in to FamilySearch before you begin searching, as at times in the past if you were not signed in, the Search results could be affected. As examples

"Births, deaths, marriages from Canton and Hong Kong newspapers, arranged chronologically, 1828-1862" catalogue entry microfilm 1208508, item 13. Digitised microfilm which may be viewed on your home computer.

"Europeans - China Coast : [card file]" “Individual cards for Europeans residing in Hong Kong and China during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries”. Digitised microfilm which may be viewed on your home computer.

"Cemetery records of old and new cemetery, 1859-1899 and Seaman's cemetery, Pootung, in Shanghai, China, 1859-1879" catalogue entry microfilm 418134 has been digitised. Currently (2021/04/15) the catalogue shows that these records may be viewed at a FamilySearch Centre or FamilySearch Affiliate Library, see FamilySearch Centres, (although at times the advice has been the records are only viewable if a microfilm can be located), but note the Society of Genealogists, London appears to have this microfilm.

This database was filmed from records at Lambeth Palace, London. See General Register Office for more information about this source, including records from China.

There are some FamilySearch [British] Foreign Office Consulate records which may be also available elsewhere, in a more accessible way, on Findmypast or Ancestry. See General Register Office.

• Ecclesiastical Returns: Baptisms, Marriages and Burials at the British Library - Macao and Whampoa [Canton] 1820-1833, IOR N/9. These records are now available on the pay site findmypast
• Refer online Hong Kong newspapers for possible birth, marriage and death notices, available both free and pay websites.
• The American pay website NewspaperArchive.com has editions of the North China Herald 03 August 1850 to 31 December 1926, (details of issues available). Previously this database was also available on Findmypast, but it was withdrawn from Findmypast c 2 August 2021, as a licence was not renewed.

There is also North China Herald Collection 1850-1941 on Archive.org, see Historical books online below.

• For those with access, (refer below) there may be birth, marriage and death notices in online newspapers which are part of ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chinese Newspapers Collection and Japan Times Archives.
• British and Indian Armies on the China Coast 1785-1985 by Alan Harfield 1990 is available at the British Library UIN: BLL01009472436 . Includes lists such as “List of Known Recipients of the Hong Kong Plague Medal 1894” and “List of Officers who served with the Hong Kong Regiment 1892-1902”. This link lists some “Military Commanders of Hong Kong and China” from the book (pages 483-484).
• Names of burials 1842-1857 in the British cemetery on Zhoushan Island [Chusan Island] off the East coast of China, but not specific dates of death, are included in "Monument to the Westmoreland Regiment The 55th Regiment of Foot in Dinghai City on Zhoushan Island" by Keith Stevens and Jennifer Welch Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 38 (1998), page 383 (12 pages). From Hong Kong Journals online hkjo.lib.hku.hk. Archive.org version.
• China: Sources in the India Office Records Guide to records at the British Library, now an archived webpage.
• Refer Historical books online, below.

Taiwan

• Book: The Story of the Takow Foreign Cemetery by David Charles Oakley 2016. Published by Bureau of Cultural Affairs Kaohsiung City Government, Taiwan. ISBN 9789860511130 . Available at the British Library UIN: BLL01018867231 . In English and Chinese. Details of the author and the book. Takow/Takao is present day Kaohsiung.

Japan

• British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA) has published

Gaijin Bochi : the Foreigners' Cemetery, Yokohama, Japan by Patricia McCabe BACSA, 1994.

Inscriptions including biographical details of over 4000 graves from 1854. Over 41 nations are represented in the last 140 years.

BACSA have put indexes to the majority of their cemetery books online, including it is believed this book, and these indexes are free to browse. For more details, see the Fibiwiki page British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia.

Available at the British Library UIN: BLL01009539962

• The American pay website NewspaperArchive.com has editions of the Japan Advertiser 01 January 1920 to 16 September 1922.(details of issues available). Previously this database was also available on Findmypast, but it was withdrawn from Findmypast c 2 August 2021, as a licence was not renewed.
• Also see Historical books online below, for some English language Japanese newspapers available on Archive.org.

British Army and Navy

The British Army leased for a time Wei-hai-wei (a fine natural harbour) on the mainland and Liu Kung Tao island. There was a garrison of British Troops. A naval depot serviced the Royal Navy's China Squadron, whose main base was at Hong Kong. Wei-hai-wei was the summer port for the Submarine Flotilla.

Following the fall of the Manchu dynasty China was plunged into civil war and Japanese intervention, and international forces were sent to preserve foreign interests. The 30th, 34th, 47th, 55th, 59th, and 81st, all served there in the 1920s and 30s, guarding the legations in Peking and defending international settlements at Tientsin, Canton, and most importantly Shanghai.The Shanghai Defence Force was established by the British Government during a period of tension in 1927, see Shanghai for more details. An additional regiment known to have been in China in the 1920s is the Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment - there may be others.

Also see "Historical Books online", below for information about Wei-hai-wei, and the fictional account, based on personal experience, Yangtze Skipper. The author served on HMS "Scarab" (river gunboat) in 1919-1920.

Also see

• China (First World War)
• Subscription websites-online newspapers, journals and directories : Other Asian publications.

Information about the English language Chinese newspaper database ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Chinese Newspapers Collection; databases for The North-China Herald and North China Daily News; ProQuest Historical Newspapers: South China Morning Post—1903-1998 (published in Hong Kong); and Japan Times Archives.

See above, The North-China Herald to 1926 is available on the American pay website NewspaperArchive.com. Editions to 1941 are also available on Archive.org, see below.

External links

• China Wikipedia
• Weihaiwei under British rule Wikipedia.
• Chinese Maritime Customs project University of Bristol. Includes
  • China Families, previously called China Coast Family History, also see above.
    • The Chinese Maritime Customs: An International Service, 1854-1950 by B. E. Foster Hall, sometime Commissioner of Chinese Maritime Customs. The Chinese Maritime Customs Project. Occasional Papers: No. 5. A reproduction of the text of B. E. Foster Hall’s history of his former service, the Chinese Maritime Customs, published by the National Maritime Museum in 1977.
• Historical Photographs of China, also associated with the University of Bristol. Incorporates the previous website "Visualising China 1850-1950"
  • Also contains a Blog category.
    • Who took the photographs? by Robert Bickers August 19, 2013
• History, empire, China, and things found on the way. Professor Robert Bickers’s website.
• Select bibliography from Britain in China by Robert Bickers manchesterhive.com
• China 1793 – 1844 in 14 parts, from "A Peoples' History 1793 – 1844 from the newspapers" houghton.hk. From Chinese region newspapers.
• China Rhyming with links to many websites about "old China".
• Challenging Dead. A Look into Foreigners’ Cemeteries in Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan by Gotelind Müller 2018. crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de.
• Blogs tagged China, from SOAS Archives includes "200 years of Swire: The China Navigation Company", September 25, 2016. Scroll down for others. SOAS, (School of Oriental and African Studies), University of London.
• "Survey work in Burma and China 1894-1903". Charles Ryder of the Survey of India was in Yunnan Province, China 1898-1901 which included taking part in the China Field Force to relieve the British Legation in Peking. He later became the Surveyor-General of India. Ryder Archives.
• "Edge of Empires" by Tim Chamberlain The British Museum Magazine Spring/Summer 2010. academia.edu. Louis Magrath King (born 1886) was a member of the British Consular Service in China.
• Register and Index of the Regiments and Corps of British Territories in China. Regiments.org, now an archived website.
• British Army regiments in China are included in the following which is mainly about British Army Regiments in India. Note, may not be complete. Indian portion of In Search of the 'Forlorn Hope': A Comprehensive Guide to Locating British Regiments and their Records (1640-WWI) by John M Kitzmiller - lists the location/year of all British regiments that served in India and related regions. (Regiments, Locations) . From Bob Holland’s Rampais website, archived. Kitzmillers's two volume book is available online, see British Army - Historical books online.
• The Regiments in China and Hong Kong 1860 - 1935 The Queen's Royal Surrey Regiment.
  • The Queen's join the China Station 1927 queensroyalsurreys.org.uk
• Shanghai 1927: 2nd Battalion Gloucestershire Regiment redcoat.info, now archived.

British Military Operations 1919-1939 by Graham Watson is a selection of orders of battle of various operations carried out by the British Army in the years between the wars. Scroll to the section "Shanghai 1927". orbat.com, now archived.

• "British Gunboats on the Yangtze" 1984. Naval Historical Society of Australia. Includes information from Gunboats on the Great River by Gregory Haines 1976, which is available at the British Library UIN: BLL01011324336 .
• "On China Station: Gunboat Diplomacy in China" by Paul Jacobs steelnavy.com, now archived.
• Changes and challenges: The Royal Navy's China Station and Britain's East Asian empire during the 1920s by Matthew Joseph Heaslip. University of Exeter thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Maritime History, November 2018. Direct pdf. Also available from EThOS British Library. Subsequently this thesis formed the basis of Gunboats, Empire and the China Station. The Royal Navy in 1920s East Asia Sample pages Google Books.
• "Plymouth military graves desecrated in China" November 02, 2013. plymouthherald.co.uk, now archived. British Naval base graveyard at Weihaiwei. Includes photographs of submarines c 1931. Same story dailymail.co.uk 4 November 2013.
• Listen to the 1981 interview with Robert Charles Beckett Anderson born 1895, British officer… served with 2nd Bn Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in New Zealand, Jamaica, China, Hong Kong and India, 1925-1935; served with Hong Kong Defence Force, 1936-1939 Imperial War Museums. Catalogue number 5251.
• Listen to the 1990 interview with Henley Charles Claxton British seaman. Includes service aboard HMS Vindictive on China Station, 1925-1928 Reels 7-9. Catalogue number 11945. In most of the reels there is a delay before the sound commences, of up to approximately one minute. Imperial War Museums.
• Listen to the 2008 interview with Gawain Thomas Alexander 'Gavin’ Douglas , born 1914. Reel 1: Background in Tiensin, (now Tianjin), Hong Kong, China and GB, 1914-1933: memories of early life in Tiensin; Imperial War Museums.
• The Oriental Compass, Volumes 1 and 2 by Lawrence B. Bangerter c 2007?. Transcriptions. “Lists name of vessel, place of embarkation, place of debarkation, date and Family History Library passenger list film number”. Shipping is India-USA and China-USA. Volume 2 is mostly China-USA. FamilySearch website. You need to be registered and sign in first, see Family Search.

Japan

• Nagasaki: People, Places and Scenes of the Nagasagi Foreign Settlement 1859-1941 includes
  • The People of the Nagasaki Foreign Settlement nfs.nias.ac.jp, archived.

Possibly there may be a current website, but it could not be located (at 2021/06/11).

Nagasaki: The British Experience, 1854-1945 by Brian Burke-Gaffney 2009 Sample pages Google Books

• "Gentlemanly Capitalism and the Club Expatriate Social Networks in Meiji Kobe" by Darren L. Swanson ejcjs (electronic journal of contemporary japanese studies) Volume 12, Issue 1 2012. japanesestudies.org.uk

Treaty Port Society and the Club in Meiji Japan: Clubbism, Athleticism and the Public Sphere by Darren Lee Swanson, Direct pdf 2016 PhD thesis, School of Languages and Cultures University of Sydney.

• Foreigners' Great War Memorial, Yokohama, Japan (Details.)

Historical books online

• Article in the Asiatic Journal, Volume 13, January-June 1822. "A Succinct Historical Narrative of the East India Company’s Endeavours to Form Settlements and to Extend and Encourage Trade in the East and of the Causes by which those Endeavours have been Frustrated":
  • Section 1 Sumatra, Borneo, Java, the Eastern Islands, etc . pages 1-11
  • Section 2 The continental kingdoms of Siam, Cochin-China [Southern Vietnam], Tonquin [Northern Vietnam], Pegu [Burma], and Ava [Burma]. pages 11-20,
  • Section 3 Japan and China pages 105-118
  • Section 4 China pages 209 -220 Google Books.
• Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series edited by W Noel Sainsbury. Archive.org and HathiTrust Digital Library.

Volume 2 East Indies, China and Japan 1513-1616 1862; Volume 3 East Indies, China and Japan 1617-1621 1870; Volume 4 East Indies, China and Japan 1622-1624 1878; Volume 6 East Indies, China and Persia 1625-1629 1884.

• Chronicles of the East India Company trading to China, 1635 to 1834 by Hosea Ballou Morse 1926. Five Volumes. Vol. I, Vol. II, Vol. III, Vol. IV, All Archive.org, originally from Digital Library of India. Also Volume 5, Supplementary, 1742-74 HathiTrust Digital Library. All volumes are also available as pdf downloads from GIPE Digital Books-Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics (GIPE), Pune. Volumes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. All volumes are also available online from the The University of British Colombia, including Volume V, but note these may be slow to load, and you may need to use a browser such as Chrome, (there being problems with Safari) - downloads available.

The International Relations of the Chinese Empire by Hosea Ballou Morse. I The Period of Conflict, 1834-1860. II. The Period of Submission, 1861-1893. III. The period of Subjection, 1894-1911. Published 1910 to 1918.

Volume I (probably 2nd edition), Vol. I, 2nd file, but missing title page (appears to have been author/publishing decision); Volume II; Volume III All Archive.org.

The Trade and Administration of China by Hosea Ballou Morse, sometime Commissioner of Customs 3rd Revised edition 1920 Archive.org

• An Outline History of China Part I From the Earliest Times to the Manchu Conquest A D 1644 by Herbert H Gowen 1913 Archive.org

An Outline History of China Part II From the Manchu Conquest to the Recognition of the Republic A D 1913 by Herbert H Gowen 1913 Archive.org

Directories etc

• Shanghai Almanac 1856 HathiTrust Digital Library
• ‪The Hongkong Directory: With List of Foreign Residents in China‬ 1859 Google Books
• Morris's Directory for China, Japan and the Phillipines, etc. 1870 Note: this appears to be a reprint edition, and only includes those sections relating to China, excluding Hong Kong. HathiTrust Digital Library
• The Desk Hong List; A general and business directory for Shanghai and the Northern and River Ports etc. 1882, 1884 Archive.org
• The Directory & Chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, &c

This publication had many titles over time and with different publishers: The China Directory (1862, 1863, 1874). The Chronicle & Directory for China, Japan & the Philippines (1864, 1868, 1869, 1873, 1879). In 1889 included Corea, Cochin-China, Annam, Tonquin, Siam, Borneo, Straits Settlements, Malay States. In 1889 included Indo-China (replacing Cochin-China, Annam, Tonquin). In 1899 included Netherlands India. By 1905 the title had changed to The Directory & Chronicle…. Published by Hongkong Daily Press.

Editions are mostly available to read online on the HathiTrust Digital Library, on Google Books, or on Archive.org.

In addition,

The digital collection of the University of Macau, Books on China Online, 16th – Early 20th Century, contains various titles for 1859 (Hong Kong), 1862, 1863, 1870, 1874 and 1875, using the Search term Directory.

Directories from China Families may have years additional to the table below.

1862 GB 1862 HT	1863 GB 1863 HT	1864 GB 1865 GB	1868 GB 1869 GB	1870 GB 1870 archive.org Contents
1873 GB 1873 HT 1873 archive.org Contents	1874 HT 1874 archive.org 1874 FamilySearch Must be signed in to FS to view. 1874 U. Basel * #	1875 GB	1876 GB	1877 GB
1879 HT 1879 archive.org	1882 GB 1884 Shanghai only archive.org	1885 archive.org from the file following 1885 Wellcome Collection. If you cannot access the images, try changing browsers.	1888 GB	1889 HT 1889 GB 1889 archive.org 1889 FamilySearch Must be signed in to FS to view.
1890 GB 1890 U. Basel *	1892 GB 1892 File 2 GB 1892 archive.org 1892 File 2 archive.org 1892 FamilySearch, see 1889 FamilySearch	1894 HT 1894 GB 1894 archive.org	1895 GB	1896 GB
1897 GB	1898 GB	1899 HT 1899 archive.org	1900 U. Basel * 1901 U. Basel *	1902 HT 1902 GB 1902 U. Basel *
1903 GB 1903 University of Santo Tomas, Philippines 1903 U. Basel *	1904 GB	1905 HT 1905 GB 1905 archive.org	1906 GB	1907 GB
1908 HT 1908 GB 1908 archive.org	1909 GB	1910 GB Some pages poor quality 1910 soas.ac.uk	1912 GB	1913 GB
1914 GB	1915 soas.ac.uk	1916 U. Basel *	1917 HT 1917 archive.org	National Library of Scotland Collection 1917-1941 See below.
1920 GB 1920 archive.org	1921 GB	1922 HT 1922 GB	1937 U. Basel *	1938 GB

* Europainstitut Basel Asian Directories and Chronicles Digital Resource Click on the search icon for 1874, 1890, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1916, 1937 digitised editions, the currently available portion of a database 1863-1941. Europainstitut, Universität Basel. Note, the Institute advises (as at 2021/09/09) the website holding the Directories is a placeholder until replaced with a newer version. The project ends in 2023 when the entire collection will be published as an open-access resource.

# The 1874 edition (but at 2021/10/18 that edition alone) is available on the library subscription website from Gale: Gale Primary Sources/Nineteenth Century Collections Online/Mapping the World: Maps and Travel Literature.

National Library of Scotland Collection "Asian directories and chronicles" 23 editions of the above title The Directory & Chronicle... 1917-1941, missing 1919 and 1923. Published by Hongkong Daily Press.

Findmypast, pay website, database Asia, Far East Directories & Chronicles 1833-1941, with a Publication list, introduced 2021/12/10. The database is searchable by name. An examination of a sample of three volumes indicated they were all digitised by others (2 by Google Books and one by National Library of Scotland) and were available elsewhere, and it is suspected that the whole database is similar, and does not include any "new" digitisations. The Findmypast viewer for this database is slow, and it would be quicker to view a volume elsewhere.

• Rosenstock’s Directory of China and Manila
  • Rosenstock’s Directory of China and Manila 1908 July-December Volume XIII National Library of the Phillipines. Note catalogued as Rosenstock's Manila City Directory 1908. Title page digital page 28, Manila Section digital page 32, Hongkong Section digital page 398 etc
  • Rosenstock’s Directory of China and Manila 1909 January to June, Volume XIV. Hongkong, Manila, Shanghai, Tientsin, Peking, Chefoo and Canton Archive.org includes
    • "Hongkong Section" digital page 400; "Canton Section" digital page 618; "Shanghai Section" digital page 634.
  • Rosenstock’s Directory of China and Manila 1909 July-December Volume XV National Library of the Phillipines. Note, catalogued as Rosenstock's Manila City Directory 1909. Includes Title page digital page 20. Manila section digital page 24. Hong Kong section digital page 364. Canton section digital page 580. File continues.
  • Rosenstock’s Directory of China and Manila 1910. Volume XVI University of Santo Thomas, Manila, Philippines.
  • Rosenstock’s Directory of China and Manila 1911. Volume XVII University of Santo Thomas, Manila, Philippines.

  For the last two entries, the books are searchable. Click on the icon for the book reader.

  • Rosenstock’s Directory of China and Manila 1917 Volume XXIII Archive.org
  • Rosenstock’s Directory of China and Manila 1920 Volume XXVI Archive.org.
  • Rosenstock's Business Directory of China 1933 Archive.org
• The Comacrib Directory of China 1925 Combined Chinese-Foreign Commercial and Classified Directory of China and Hongkong. Volume 1 Archive.org
• The Colonial Office List for .... Includes a section on each country, and the Colonial Office List at the end of each volume. First published 1862. See Directories online - Colonial Office List for a broken range 1862-1966. Includes Hong Kong and Wei-hai-wei.
• Service List China Imperial Maritime Customs Service A collection of editions 1876 to 1947, 67 volumes. SOAS University of London digital.soas.ac.uk .
• Directory of Protestant missions in China and variant titles
  • Divinity Library Yale University Library Digital Collections has links to various editions, which most likely are
    • List of Protestant missionaries in China, Japan and Siam for 1874, 1881, 1884
    • Directory of Protestant missionaries in China and Japan 1902

    Also available 1902 digital.soas.ac.uk version

    • Directory of Protestant missionaries in China, Japan and Corea 1904-1905, 1908-1911, 1916. (1916 edition title could alternatively be ...China only)

    Also available for those in areas such as North America

    1903 which appears to include 1906 also; 1908, 1910, 1911. 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916 Google Books.

    HathiTrust Digital Library including 1906 and 1917.

    • Directory of Protestant missions in China 1936; 1940, published by the North China Daily News & Herald, Shanghai.
  • Directory of Protestant missions in China 1920 Archive.org
  • Directory of Protestant Missions in China 1921 includes "Alphabetical List of Names", page 257. Archive.org
• Online Directories from China Families, University of Bristol: Department of History.

Collection on Archive.org, uploaded by China Families

• The North China Herald Collection 1850-1941. Archive.org. Published in Shanghai as the weekly edition of the North-China Daily News. Searchable as a collection. There perhaps may be additional editions available outside of this collection, also on Archive.org.
• The London and China Express, published in London, with target readership those outside the Indian Empire, is available on Findmypast, category "Newspapers & periodicals"/"British newspapers", with the same contents also available on the British Newspaper Archive, both pay websites. The date range is from November 25, 1858 to July 2, 1931. For more details see Newspapers and journals online.
• The London & China Herald published in London, "on departure of the mails for China and Japan" is available on Findmypast, category "Newspapers & periodicals"/"British newspapers", with the same contents also available on the British Newspaper Archive, both pay websites. The date range is from October 10, 1867 to June 17, 1870. For more details see Newspapers and journals online.
• The London and China Telegraph. Published in London. Covers China, Hong Kong, Japan, Straits Settlements (Singapore, Penang), Batavia and perhaps a wider area. There are two series of digitisations, both on Google Books, one from the Bavarian State Library, the other from Cornell University, the latter labelled A. Links for both series are provided, in case the digitisation quality varies. From February 2022, this title is also available on the pay websites Findmypast and British Newspaper Archive.

1860	1861	1863	1864	1865
1866	1867 1867 A	1868 1868 A	1869 1869 A	1870 A
1871 1871 A	1872 1872 A	1873 1873 A	1874: Jan-June 1874: July-Dec 1874 to Dec. A	1875 to Dec. 1875 to Oct. A

In addition, there is a collection of individual issues of London and China Telegraph on Archive.org which includes editions for 1877.

From February 2022 The London and China Telegraph is also available on Findmypast, category "Newspapers & periodicals", with the same contents also available on the British Newspaper Archive, both pay websites. The date range is 1858-1921. For more details see Newspapers and journals online.

• Home News for India, China and the Colonies is available on Findmypast, category "Newspapers & periodicals", with the same contents also available on the British Newspaper Archive, both pay websites. The date range is from 7 January 1847, with eventual coverage to 1896. For more details see Newspapers and journals online.
• Homeward Mail from India, China and the East is available on Findmypast, category "Newspapers & periodicals", with the same contents also available on the British Newspaper Archive, both pay websites. The date range is 1 January 1857 to 27 December 1913. For more details see Newspapers and journals online.
• For some newspapers published in Japan, see the Japan section below.
• Navigation
  • The British mariner's directory and guide to the trade and navigation of the Indian and China seas. Containing instructions for navigating from Europe to India and China, and from port to port in those regions, and parts adjacent: With an account of the trade, mercantile habits, manners, and customs of the natives by H M Elmore, late Commander of the Varuna Extra East Indiaman 1802 Archive.org.
  • The Oriental Navigator, Or, Directions for Sailing To, From, and Upon the Coasts Of, the East-Indies, China, Australia, Etc. by Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Denis d' Après de Mannevillette 3rd edition revised by John Purdy 1816. Google Books. British Library Digital version.
  • The China Sea Directory by the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, London.
    • The China Sea Directory Volume I. Containing directions for the approaches to the China Sea and to Singapore, by the straits of Sunda, Banka, Gaspar, Carimata, Rhio, Varella, Durian, and Singapore by J. W. Reed , R N and J. W. King, R N. 1867 Google Books. 3rd edition 1886 Archive.org.
    • The China Sea Directory Volume II. Containing directions for the navigation of the China Sea, between Singapore and Hong Kong by J. W. Reed , R N and J. W. King, R N. 1868. British Library Digital Collection.
    • China Sea Directory Volume III. The Coasts of China from Hong Kong to the Korea etc Edited by Captain Charles J Bulloch, RN. 1874 Archive.org. 2nd edition 1884 Archive.org
    • China Sea Directory Volume IV. Japan Islands etc by F W Jarrad, R N.1873 Archive.org. 2nd edition 1884 Archive.org
  • A directory for the navigation of the Indian Archipelago, China, and Japan, from the Straits of Malacca and Sunda, and the passages east of Java. To Canton, Shanghai, the Yellow Sea, and Japan, with descriptions of the winds, monsoons, and currents, and general instructions for the various channels, harbours, etc by Alexander George Findlay 2nd edition 1878 Archive.org
• The Educational Directory for China: An Account of the Various Schools and Colleges connected with Protestant Missions 2nd Issue 1905 Archive.org
• Who's Who in the Far East, 1906-7, June Archive.org
• The China Who's Who 1922: A Biographical Dictionary compiled and published by Carroll Lunt. 1922 Archive.org
• Record of Services Given and Honours Attained by Members of the Chinese Customs Service, War 1914-1918 Published 1922, Shanghai. Archive.org

General

• Also see the main cities in China, particularly Shanghai.
• The voyages and adventures of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto ... during his travels for the space of one and twenty years in the kingdoms of Ethiopia, China, Tartaria, Cauchin-China, Calaminham, Siam, Pegu, Japan, and a great part of the East-Indies. Done into English by H C [Henry Cogan] 1663 edition, 2nd edition, corrected and amended 1663 First Portuguese edition 1614.

The voyages and adventures of Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, the Portuguese (done into English by Henry Cogan) with an Introduction by Arminius Vambery. A volume in The Adventure Series. Abridged and Illustrated edition 1891, Popular edition 1897 All Archive.org.

The Travels of Mendes Pinto Edited and translated by Rebecca D Catz 1989. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library

Fernão Mendes Pinto Wikipedia. He made three voyage 1537-1558.

• The Portugues Asia: Or, The History of the Discovery and Conquest of India by the Portugues; Containing All Their Discoveries from the Coast of Africk, to the Farthest Parts of China and Japan; All Their Battels by Sea and Land, Sieges and Other Memorable Actions; a Description of Those Countries, and Many Particulars of the Religion, Government and Customs of the Natives, &c. ... by Manuel de Faria e Sousa, a Portuguese historian. Translated into English by Cap. John Stevens 1695

Volume I Google Books; Volume II Archive.org mirror from Kerala State Central Library Rare Books Online; Volume II, Volume III Qatar Digital Library. Transcribed version, Tomes [Volumes]I-III, note however, the contents of some of the various Tomes (Volumes) are listed out of chronological order. lib.umich.edu. There was a three volume reprint edition published in 1971.

• "Canton" page 97 An account of the trade in India: containing rules for good government in trade, price courants, and tables: with descriptions of Fort St. George, Acheen, Malacca, Condore, Canton, Anjengo, Muskat, Gombroon, Surat, Goa, Carwar, Telichery, Panola, Calicut, the Cape of Good-Hope, and St. Helena... To which is added, An Account of the Management of the Dutch in their Affairs in India by Charles Lockyer 1711 Archive.org Contents
• A Voyage to the East Indies in 1747 and 1748. Containing an Account of the Islands of St. Helena and Java. Of the City of Batavia. Of the Government and Political Conduct of the Dutch. Of the Empire of China, with a Particular Description of Canton ... 1762 Google Books. The Preface states the author was an officer in the service of the East India Company.
• A Voyage to China and the East Indies by Peter (Pehr) Osbeck. Translated from the German by John Reinhold Forster 1771. Volume I, Volume II Archive.org. A voyage commencing in 1750, when he was the chaplain on a Swedish East India Company ship, the Prins Carl (Prince Charles). German title Reise nach Ostindien und China (1762). Originally written in Swedish Dagbok öfwer en ostindisk Resa åren 1750, 1751, 1752 (1757). Pehr Osbeck Wikipedia.

In addition, Volume II of the this title contains the following

A Voyage to Suratte, China &c by Olof Toreen, Chaplain of the Gothic Lion East Indiaman, page 153 Volume II. A voyage from 1st April 1750 to 26th June 1752.

A Short Account of the Chinese Husbandry by Captain Charles Gustavus Eckeberg, page 267 Volume II. Carl Gustaf Ekeberg Wikipedia.

Faunula Sinensis, Flora Sinensis page 319 Volume II. Archive.org

• "China" page 1 The New Universal Traveller: Containing a Full and Distinct Account of All the Empires, Kingdoms, and States, in the Known World by J Carver 1779 Google Books
• The View of India Extra Gangem, China, and Japan by Thomas Pennant 1800. Archive.org. Contents. Index. Volume III in a series Outlines of the Globe but sometimes catalogued as Volume III in a series The View of Hindoostan.
• Journal of a Voyage in 1811 and 1812 to Madras and China returning by the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena; In the H. C. S. the Hope, Capt. James Pendergrass by James Wathen 1814. With Coloured Prints from drawings by the author. Archive.org
• British Trade With China by James Matheson 1836. Archive.org, Public Library Of India Collection. Full title The present position and prospects of the British trade with China; together with an outline of some leading occurrences in its past history by James Matheson, Esq. of the firm of Jardine, Matheson and Co, of Canton.
• A Subaltern's Sick Leave: Rough notes of a visit in search of health to China and the Cape of Good Hope by Nicolas Polson, Bengal Native Infantry 1837. Archive.org Ministry of Culture/National Library of India Collection. Elsewhere it is stated the author was in fact Lieutenant Peter Nicholson (or Nicolson). He sailed from Calcutta July 1835.
• Travels in South-Eastern Asia, embracing Hindustan, Malaya, Siam, and China: with notices of numerous missionary stations, and a full account of the Burman Empire; with dissertations, tables, etc by Howard Malcolm 2nd edition 1839, possibly first published 1839 also. 2 volumes in one. Book 2 with index follows page 276 of Book 1 Google Books. A chapter on China commences page 141 of book 2
• The Morning of My Life in China: comprising an outline of the history of foreign intercourse from the last year of the regime of Honorable East India Company, 1833, to the imprisonment of the foreign community in 1839 by Gideon Nye 1873 Archive.org
• British Trade and the Opening of China, 1800-42 by Michael Greenberg 1951. [1979] reprint edition. Both Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• The 'Fan Kwae' at Canton before treaty days, 1825-1844 by An Old Resident [William C Hunter] 2nd edition 1911 (First published 1882) Archive.org [Fan Kwae= Foreign Barbarians, Devils]
• The Cree journals : the voyages of Edward H. Cree, Surgeon R.N., as related in his private journals, 1837-1856 edited and with an introduction by Michael Levien 1981 Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Includes ten years in the Far East including the First Opium War period and pursuit of a Chinese pirate fleet in 1849.
• Six months among the Malays, and a year in China by Dr Yvan, Physician to the scientific mission sent by France to China, pub. 1855 Archive.org. The book appears to be translations of extracts from the book De France en Chine by Melchior Yvan 1855 Archive.org. This expedition departed France December 1843.
• Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast. The Opening of the Treaty Ports 1842-1854 by John King Fairbank. 2nd edition 1969, first published 1953. Archive.org.

Also see Fairbank's autobiography below Chinabound : a fifty-year memoir, published 1982.

• A residence among the Chinese inland, on the coast, and at sea. Being a narrative of scenes and adventures during a third visit to China, from 1853 to 1856 by Robert Fortune 1857 Archive.org
• On the Coasts of Cathay and Cipango Forty Years Ago: A Record of Surveying Service in the China Yellow and Japan Seas and on the Seabord of Korea and Manchuria by William Blakeney RN, William; Illustrated by F le Breton Bedwell RN. 1902 Archive.org, Granth Sanjeevani Asiatic Society of Mumbai Collection. The voyage commenced in 1856.
• A Cruise in an Opium Clipper by Captain Lindsay Anderson 1891 Archive.org. He joined the opium clipper 1859 at Shanghai.
• The China Clippers by Basil Lubbock 2nd edition 1914, first published also 1914. Archive.org
• The Chinese commercial guide : containing treaties, tariffs, regulations, tables, etc useful in the trade to China & Eastern Asia : with an appendix of sailing directions for those seas and coasts by S. Wells Williams 5th edition 1863 Archive.org
• Reports from Committees: Mortality of Troops (China) Session 1 February-10 August 1866 Volume XV. Ordered to be printed by The House of Commons 24 July 1866. Google Books.

British Parliamentary Papers: Mortality of Troops in China 1863 and 1866 Reprinted 1915 Archive.org

• ‪The Treaty Ports of China and Japan: A Complete Guide to the Open Ports of Those Countries, Together with Peking, Yedo, Hongkong and Macao. Forming a Guide Book & Vade Mecum for Travellers, Merchants, and Residents in General‬ by William Frederick Mayers, N B Dennys, and Charles King 1867. Note: The maps have not been filmed. Google Books
• Reports of Missionary Society Hospitals at Amoy, Canton, Chinkiang, Foochow, Hankow, Shanghai, Swatow, Tientsin. 1848-75 Google Books
• Straits of Malacca, Indo-China, and China; or Ten Years Travels, Adventures and Residence Abroad by J Thomson 1875 Archive.org
• Canton and the Bogue. The narrative of an eventful six months in China by Walter William Mundy 1875 Archive.org. A visit in 1874.
• Bits of Old China by William C Hunter 1885 Archive,org
• English Life In China by Major Henry Knollys, Royal Artillery. 1885 HathiTrust Digital Library. Archive.org version, originally on the Digital Library of India.
• The Land of the Dragon. My boating and shooting excursions to the gorges of the Upper Yangtze by William Spencer Percival, H B M’s [Her Britannic Majesty's] Civil Service China 1889 Archive.org.

Twenty Years in the Far East : Sketches of Sport, Travel and Adventure by William Spencer Percival 1905 Archive.org

• Henry S. King & Co.'s Hand book for homeward-bound travellers from India, Australia and the East 1893 National Library of Australia. Includes the telegraph code to be used, as words or phrases more than ten letters are charged double.
• With Boat and Gun in the Yangtze Valley by Henling Thomas Wade. With special chapters by valued contributors. Second edition 1910 Archive.org. First published 1895 staatsbibliothek-berlin.de version.
• China, Past and Present by Edward Harper Parker 1903 Archive.org
• Life and Sport in China by Oliver George Ready 1904 2nd edition, possibly first published 1903. 2nd file, with white pages Archive.org.
• European Settlements in the Far East; China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, etc by DWS [catalogued as D Warres Smith] 1900 Archive.org. The author appears to have been the publisher of/associated with the annual publication Directory and Chronicle for China, Japan…, see further above for online editions.
• The China Martyrs of 1900. 
A Complete Roll of the Christian Heroes Martyred in China in 1900, with Narratives of Survivors 
compiled and edited by Robert Coventry Forsyth 1904 Archive.org
• Letters from the Far East by Sir Charles Eliot 1907 Archive.org. The author visited China and Japan in 1906.
• Twentieth century impressions of Hong-kong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China: their history, people, commerce, industries, and resources by Arnold Wright 1908 Archive.org
• The Far East revisited; essays on political, commercial, social, and general conditions in Malaya, China, Korea and Japan by A. Gorton Angier, editor of the London and China Telegraph. 1908 Archive.org
• Sir Robert Hart, the romance of a great career by his niece Juliet Bredon 1909. Archive.org

The I.G. in Peking : letters of Robert Hart, Chinese Maritime Customs, 1868-1907, Volume Two [1891-1907] edited by John King Fairbank, Katherine Frost Bruner, Elizabeth Macleod Matheson 1975. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Volume One does not appear to be available online currently (2021/05).

In the Chinese Customs Service : a Personal Record of Forty-Seven Years by Paul King 1924 HathiTrust Digital Library. He commenced in 1874 and retired October 1920, most of it spent in China, but some years were in the London office, including from 1914. He had issues with the Inspector General Robert Hart, who did not regard King favourably.

China: The Maritime Customs. IV- Service Series, No 69. Documents illustrative of the Origin, Development, and Activities of the Chinese Customs Service. Published at Shanghai by the Statistical Department of the Inspectorate General of Customs.

Volumes I-V Inspector General's Circulars Vol. I: 1861-1892 1937; Vol. II 1893 to 1910 1938;Vol. III 1911 to 1923 1938; Vol. IV 1924 to 1931 1939; Vol. V 1932 to 1938 1939; Vol. VI Despatches, Letters, Memoranda etc 1842 to 1901 1938; Vol. VII Despatches, Letters, Memoranda etc Index 1940 including "Index", page 413. Note catalogued title varies. All Archive.org, mirror versions from Digital Library of India.

• Houseboat Days in China by J. O. P. Bland illustrated by W D Straight 1909. With a Map of Country near Shanghai digital page 312. Archive.org. John Otway Percy Bland (Wikipedia) was a British writer and journalist, who lived in China for most of the period 1883–1910.
• Sport and Travel in the Far East by J C Grew 1910 Archive.org. The travel occurred in 1902-1903. Joseph Grew Wikipedia. He became an American diplomat, and from 1932-1941 was Ambassador to Japan.
• Lion and Dragon in Northern China by Reginald Fleming Johnston 1910 Archive.org. The photographs may be better in the Gutenberg.org version. This book is about Wei-hai-wei.

Wei-Hai-Wei c 1900 page 165 Fifty Years in the Royal Navy by Admiral Sir Percy Scott 1919. Archive.org.

"Negotiations relating to Wei-Hai-Wei and Corea 1904-5" page 112 British documents on the origins of the war, 1898-1914, Volume IV: The Anglo-Russian Rapprochment, 1903-7 edited by G P Gooch and Harold Temperley 1929. Archive.org

"The Chinese Stations" page 99, and Photograph: Naval Hospital Liukungtao, facing page 113 The Sea Road to the East, Gibraltar to Wei-hai-wei; six lectures by Arthur John Sargent 1912 Archive.org

Fiction based on personal experience: Yangtze Skipper, by Thomas Woodrooffe 1937. HathiTrust Digital Library. Set in 1919 Shanghai, Toby Warren is First Lieutenant on the "Beetle", a (fictious) Royal Navy river gunboat. The author served on HMS "Scarab" (river gunboat) in 1919-1920, and it is stated elsewhere, in respect of another book, that he wrote about things actually seen and experienced.

Note, this title may be the American title as it appears to be the same book as River of Golden Sand by Thomas Woodrooffe. A review of River of Golden Sand

Bless our Ship by Captain Eric Wheler Bush, Royal Navy 1958. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Biographical details archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. He became a Naval Cadet at age 12 in 1912 and served in the Navy to 1948, including East Indies Station from 1922, and China Station late 1920s and again early 1930s.

The True Glory : the Royal Navy, 1914-1939 by Max Arthur 1996 Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Personal accounts.

• "Lieutenant Shannon Stevenson", page 231. He served on the Yangtze River gunboat HMS Bee, one of the Insect class, one of about a dozen operating at the time, 1925-1927.
• "Petty Officer Stan Smith", page 242 China c late 1920s - early 1930s.
• "Engine Room Artificer Trevor Lewis", page 249 Hong Kong and China, including Shanghai during bombing, mid-late 1930s.

We Dive at Dawn by Lt.-Com. Kenneth Edwards 1941. HathiTrust Digital Library. About Submarines. Missing Contents page, but includes a description of the Illustrations, which gives some idea of the Contents. Includes "Chapter XX" pages 347-360 (digital page 391) about China Station in the 1920s.

Far China Station : the U.S. Navy in Asian Waters, 1800-1898 by Robert Irwin Johnson 2013, first published 1979. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.

Sample pages Yangtze Patrol: The U.S. Navy in China by Kemp Tolley 2013. Google Books

Sample pages The Royal Navy, China Station 1864 - 1941: As seen through the lives of the Commanders in Chief‬ by Jonathan Parkinson. 2018. Title on title page is The China Station, Royal Navy: A History as seen through the lives of the Commanders in Chief, 1864-1941.

• A naturalist in Western China : with vasculum, camera, and gun, being some account of eleven year's travel, exploration, and observation in the more remote parts of the flowery kingdom by Ernest Henry Wilson 1913. Volume I, Volume II Archive.org

Ernest H. Wilson Plant Hunter [1876-1930] by Edward I Farrington 1931. Archive.org, Digital Library of India Collection.

• China Inland Mission private telegraph code 1913 Archive.org
• Peking and the overland route Published by Thos. Cook & Son 3rd edition 1917 Archive.org

Cook’s Guide to Peking, North China, South Manchuria and Korea Published by Thos. Cook & Son 1924 Archive.org

• Treaty Ports in China (a Study in Diplomacy) by En-Sai Tai 1918 Archive.org
• With the Chinks by Daryl Klein, 2nd Lieutenant in the Chinese Labour Corps, 1919 Archive.org

Report giving the history of the Chinese Labour Corps used behind the lines in France 1917-19 British Library Mss Eur F288/110. Part of the family papers of Sir Leslie Fry, Mss Eur F288, (so possibly written by a family member?) British Library Digital.

• The Empire at War edited for the Royal Colonial Institute by Sir Charles Lucas, in five volumes, with a catalogue contents description. (Volume 1 British Library Digital file) Volume 5, 1926, covers WW1 The Mediterranean colonies ; Egypt and Palestine ; Aden ; India ; Ceylon ; Malaya ; China. Volume 5, British Library Digital file, Contents. Also available Archive.org version, mirror from the Digital Library of India.
• Lauterbach of the China Sea : the Escapes and Adventures of a Seagoing Falstaff by Lowell Thomas, 1930 Archive.org. The author was an American writer and broadcaster. Julius Lauterbach Wikipedia Google Translate English] [1877-1937], Original German version. From c 1900 to the start of WW1, Lauterbach sailed the China Sea, becoming Captain, with the initial chapters covering this period.
• Peace Handbooks Volume 12 China, Japan, Siam. 67-71, 73-74 China: Recent History; Mongolia; Manchuria; Tibet; Kiaochow and Weihaiwei; Japan: Recent History; Siam: Recent History. (Issued by the Historical Section of the Foreign Office) published by HM Stationery Office 1920 Archive.org includes
  • No. 67 "China" by Charles William Campbell, late Chinese Secretary, British Legation, Peking, digital page 12
  • Part of No. 71 "Weihaiwei", digital page 410.
• The Travelers' Handbook for China (including Hongkong) by Carl Crow Third Edition, Revised 1921 Archive.org. Index. Includes maps.
  • 1913 Edition Hathi Trust Digital Library

Other books by Carl Crow

I Speak For The Chinese by Crow Carl 1938 Archive.org. Japanese infringements on China from 1915.

My Friends, the Chinese by Carl Crow. Decorations by G Sapojnikoff (Sapajou) 1938 Archive.org. Published in London.

The Chinese Are Like That by Carl Crow 1938 Archive.org. American edition of the previous book with an extra chapter. Illustrations differ.

Carl Crow Wikipedia

• China and modern medicine: a study in medical missionary development by Harold Balme 1921 Archive.org
• The Memoirs of a Malayan Official by Victor Purcell 1965 Archive.org Lending Library. As a member of the Malayan Civil Service from 1921, he was soon after sent to Canton and Peking to study Chinese from page 101.
• Jesting Pilate : an Intellectual Holiday by Aldous Huxley 1926. Archive.org. Reprinted as Jesting Pilate : the Diary of a Journey 1957 Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library, and as Jesting Pilate: Travels Through India, Burma, Malaya, Japan, China, and America (1991).
• The Dragon and the Foreign Devils by Johan Gunnar Andersson ; translated from the Swedish by Charles Wharton Stork 1928. Translation of the author's "Draken och de främmande djävlarna". Link to a number of pdf downloads STOU Digital Repository Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Thailand. Archive.org mirror version.
• The Political History of China, 1840-1928 by Li Chien-Nung. Translated and Edited by Ssu-Yu Teng and Jeremy Ingalls. 1963 reprint edition, originally published 1956. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• New Lamps for Old: An Interpretation of Events in Modern China and Whither They Lead by Anatol M Kotenev. published Shanghai : North-China Daily News & Herald, 1931. Link to a pdf download STOU Digital Repository Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Thailand. Archive.org mirror version. Elsewhere, about the author: "As Russia fell to the communists, he escaped with his family to China and served with the British Colonial Service in Shanghai. He was a noted lecturer and author of several books on the history and politics of China".

For more books by Kotenev, see Shanghai - Historical books online.

• I Sailed with Chinese Pirates by Aleko E. Lilius 1931, first published 1930. HathiTrust Digital Library. Aleko Lilius Wikipedia. Lilius was a journalist. The book was reprinted at least twice, in 1991 and 2010, the latter with a Foreword by Paul French, see French's books further below.
• Journey to the Beginning by Edgar Snow 1958. File 2: 1972 reprint. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Edgar Snow Wikipedia. Snow was an American journalist who lived in China for many years from 1928, best known for his book, Red Star Over China (1937), an account of the Chinese Communist movement from its foundation until the late 1930s.

Red Star Over China - The Rise Of The Red Army by Edgar Snow c 1938.

2nd file Catalogued 2013, and the longer title perhaps implying it is a reprint edition, although this is not stated. Both Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. 1944 edition with 1944 Preface titled Red Star Over China. Note however, initial digital pages are either duplicated, or out of order. Further file, catalogued 1938. Both Archive.org.

• Diplomacy and Enterprise : British China policy, 1933-1937 by Stephen Lyon Endicott 1975. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French 2012. Archive.org Lending Library. A true story of a 1937 murder of a British schoolgirl.

Midnight In Peking by Paul French. BBC Radio Reading audio May-June 2012. Archive.org

Paul French on Midnight in Peking 2013 podcast by Radio Television Hong Kong on Archive.org. One way to listen online is to click on the "Source_url".

Paul French is the author of many books on the "old" period in China, including The Badlands: Decadent Playground of Old Peking (2013) Sample pages Google Books and Bloody Saturday: Shanghai’s Darkest Day, published 2017 Sample pages Google Books. The day was Saturday, August 14, 1937, when the Japanese bombed the city. For a further book by French, see Shanghai.

• The Japanese informal empire in China, 1895-1937 edited by Peter Duus, Ramon H Myers, and Mark R Peattie 1989. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Nanjing 1937 : Battle for a Doomed City by Peter Harmsen 2015. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Also known as the Rape of Nanjing, December 1937. By the Japanese, against the Chinese. Follows on from the Battle of Shanghai 1937. The author is a veteran East Asia correspondent.
• Inside Asia by John Gunther 1939. The political situation in the late 1930s. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Chapters on China including
  • Chapter XII "A Song of Soongs" page 201. Also see the book by Emily Kahn, below.
• Journey To A War by W.H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood 1939 Archive.org. Travel diary of a trip to China in 1938, after the Sino-Japanese War in 1937.
• China Fights Back An American Woman With The Eighth Route Army by Agnes Smedley 1938. Archive.org, mirror from Digital Library of India.

Battle Hymn of China by Agnes Smedley 1944 Archive.org, mirror from DLI.

Agnes Smedley Wikipedia. American journalist.

• Far Eastern War 1937-1941 by Harold S. Quigley 1942 Archive.org, mirror from DLI.
• China to Me : a Partial Autobiography by Emily Hahn 1944. 2nd file, 3rd file 1944 Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Hahn became a New Yorker magazine writer. The latter half of the book covers her experiences in Hong Kong under Japanese control. About the book librarything.com. "classic memoir of her years in China remains remarkable for her insights into a tumultuous period and her frankness about her personal exploits. A proud feminist and fearless traveler, she set out for China in 1935 and stayed through the early years of the Second Sino-Japanese War..."

The Soong Sisters by Emily Kahn 1941 Archive.org. Mesdames Kung, Sun and Chiang, the wives of famous Chinese men.

Hong Kong Holiday by Emily Hahn 1946. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.

• The Years That Were Fat Peking: 1933- 1940 by George N Kates with photographs by Hedda Hammer Morrison 1952. Archive.org. 1967 reprint with better photographs and title The Years That Were Fat: The Last of Old China. Archive.org Books to Borrow/ Lending Library
• Retreat from China: British policy in the Far East, 1937-1941 by Nicholas R Clifford 1967. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Far East by Cecil Beaton 1945. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library version with better photographs, Archive.org version. Well known photographer. During WW2 he worked for the UK Ministry of Information, which sent him to India, Burma and China 1943-1944 for six months (he was in China in 1944), as a war photographer.

Also see Second World War

• Report from Red China by Harrison Forman 1945. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Thunder out of China by Theodore H. White (Theodore Harold) and Annalee Jacoby 1946. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• A military history of modern China, 1924-1949 by F F Liu (Frederick Fu) 1956. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• My Pleasures and Palaces; an Informal Memoir of Forty Years in Modern China by Harry Hussey 1968. File 2. An architect born 1881, he was in China from 1911. He left his home in Peking early 1949, ahead of the takeover by Communist troops. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• The Chinese city between two worlds edited by Mark Elvin and G. William Skinner 1974. Includes chapters on Shanghai, Canton. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• The foreign establishment in China in the early twentieth century by Albert Feuerwerker 1976. Series Michigan Papers in Chinese Studies, No 29. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Chinabound : a fifty-year memoir by John King Fairbank 1982. File 2 Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Fairbank arrived in Peking in 1932 to study Chinese and do research for an Oxford University D Phil thesis (subsequently completed in 1936). He was also in China during WW2. Also see his book above Trade and Diplomacy on the China Coast. The Opening of the Treaty Ports 1842-1854.
• Eastern banking : essays in the history of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation edited by Frank H H King 1983. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Tales from the South China Seas : images of the British in South-East Asia in the twentieth century by Charles Allen 1984. Originally commissioned by, and broadcast on BBC Radio as oral history documentaries. Archive.org Lending Library. Contains limited accounts about China. For a similar book with accounts about China, see The Lion and the Dragon: British Voices from the China Coast by Christopher Cook 1985, not available online except for Searchable, but not viewable Google Books. Available at the British Library UIN: BLL01011027097.
• Series Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1939, published by HMSO. Details of the volumes (diplomatic-documents.org, archived page), published between 1946 and 1986.
  • First Series 1919-1925
    • Vol. 14 Far Eastern affairs 1920-22 (1966). Contents. Vol. 14 Archive.org.
  • Second Series 1929-1938
    • Vol. 8 Chinese affairs and Japanese action in Manchuria 1929-31 (1960). Contents. Vol. 8 Archive.org
    • Vol. 9 The Far Eastern crisis 1931-32 (1965) Contents. Vol. 9 Archive.org
    • Vol.10 Far Eastern affairs March - October 1932 (1969). Contents. Vol. 10 Archive.org
    • Vol. 11 Far Eastern affairs October 1932 - June 1933 (1970). Contents. Vol. 11 Archive.org
  • Third Series 1938-1939
    • Vol. 8 Policy in the Far East; attitude of H.M.G. towards the Sino-Japanese conflict; interaction of events in the Far East and Western Europe, August 1938 - April 1939 (1955). Contents. Vol. 8 Archive.org
    • Vol. 9 Policy in the Far East during the five months preceding the outbreak of war in Europe, April - September 1939 (1955). Contents.Vol. 9 Archive.org
    • Vol.10 Index [to Third Series] (1961) Contents. Vol. 10 Archive.org

All HathiTrust Digital Library unless otherwise indicated, possibly may not be viewable in regions such as North America.

• The Chinese Repository published in Canton 1832-1851. Some of the online editions are part of a volume only, which is listed on the Archive.org page for that volume, but cannot be determined from the title in the List version. However, by switching to the Thumbnail version, the exact title can generally be read. Index of the Twenty Volumes Archive.org
• Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. North appears to have been dropped from the title for a period.
  • New Series No I December 1864, New Series No II December 1865, New Series No III December 1866 Google Books
  • Multiple volumes Archive.org
  • Multiple volumes Hathi Trust: A, B, C
• Notes and Queries on China and Japan, four volumes 1867 to 1870. Published in Hong Kong. HathiTrust Digital Library. Archive.org editions consisting of 1867, which also contains 1868 (from digital page 198), and 1869. Volume 4, Issues 1-8 [1870] Google Books.
• The China Review, or notes & queries on the Far East. Published in Hong Kong. Multiple volumes from Volume 1, 1872 to Volume 21 1894-5 catalogued full view, but Vols. 22 and 23 also noted, cataloged incorrectly. HathiTrust Digital Library A, B and C. From an individual book file, it is generally possible to click on "Find at Google Books" for the Google Books file. Archive.org volumes.
• Things Chinese being Notes on various subjects connected with China by J Dyer Ball H M Civil Service, Hong Kong.

1892 edition; 2nd edtion, revised and enlarged 1893; 3rd edition revised and enlarged 1900; 4th edition 1904 with title Things Chinese: Or, Notes Connected with China. All Archive.org.

• The Far Eastern Review Collection at Archive.org. Published between 1904 and 1941, it was initially published in Manila but later was based in Shanghai. Engineering - Commerce - Finance were three key words on the cover of the journal and in addition to politics many articles were related to technology, trade and infrastructure in the broader region.
• The China Weekly Review Collection at Archive.org. Various titles from 1917 to 1940, published as Millard's Review of the Far East - 1917-1921.6 then The Weekly Review of the Far East - 1921.6-1923 and The China Weekly Review 1923 onward.
• Digital Initiatives from the University of Hong Kong Libraries. Some databases are restricted to members of the University. For those databases which are freely available, click on Browse to see the titles available.

DigitalRepository@HKUL This appears to be a more recent website from the same source The University of Hong Kong Libraries, which includes the collections as above, and perhaps additional collections/material.

• Digital Collection of the University of Macau Library, Books on China Online, 16th – Early 20th Century.
• Chinese Maritime Customs publications available online, including "Occasional papers". Chinese Maritime Customs project, University of Bristol 2003-2007, page on China Families.
• Bibliotheca Sinica 2.0 Online books. "This project is an addition (and a new horizon) for "Western Books on China in Libraries in Vienna/Austria, 1477-1939"". univie.ac.at
• Bibliothèque Numérique Asiatique/ Asian Digital Library IrAsia - Institut de recherches asiatiques, Aix-Marseille Université, France.
• Deutsch-chinesische Nachrichten 1930-1939 and Deutsche Zeitung in Nordchina 1939-1941. Online German language newspapers, published Tientsin (now Tianjin). staatsbibliothek-berlin.de
• Historic Newspapers portal (Deutsches Zeitungsportal) deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de. Appears to have commenced 28 October 2021 and is a work in progress. At the start date, includes some German language newspapers catalogued from Schanghai [Shanghai]
• German language books about Kiautschou and Tsingtau Koloniale Sammlungen, Universitätsbibliothek, Frankfurt am Main. (Jiaozhou was romanized as Kiaochow, Kiauchau or Kiao-Chau in English and as Kiautschou or Kiaochau in German. The administrative centre was at Tsingtau (now Qingdao).)
• Fiction:
  • The Flying Boat: A Story of Adventure and Misadventure by Herbert Strang 1912. Gutenberg.org. Young British traders in China. An adventure story for younger readers.
  • A Chinese Command: A Story of Adventure in the Eastern Seas by Harry Collingwood, (pseudonym i.e. William Joseph Cosens Lancaster). Illustrated by Arch. Webb. 1915 Archive.org. The main character Frobisher is a cashiered Royal Navy ex-officer who ends up commanding a Chinese battleship during the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. An adventure story. Author:William Joseph Cosens Lancaster Wikisource.

  The Scarlet Stripe - being the adventures of a naval surgeon by 1932 Taffrail (Captain Henry Taprell Dorling R N) 1932 fadedpage.com, a Canadian website with many online books. A transcription. An adventure story. Includes piracies of coasting steamers in the China Seas, in line with actual events. He was also the author of Pirates published 1929, a story of the operations of the pirates in the Canton delta and of the duties of the British gunboats involved, which is available at the British Library UIN: BLL01000969387 . H. Taprell Dorling Wikipedia.

  • Within the Four Seas : a Shantung Idyll by Paul Richard Abbott published Shanghai : The Commercial Press, 1930. A series of chapter downloads from STOU Digital Repository, Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Thailand. A description elsewhere says "A fictional tale of a young Chinese scholar who has run away from the tyranny of his family to work with the Chinese Labor Corps in France during the Great War". The author is stated to be an American missionary and the book is discussed from page 84 in Cultural Engagement In Missionary China: American Missionary Novels 1880-1930 by Yi-Ling Lin PhD Thesis in Comparative Literature, Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2013.
  • Juan In China by Eric Linklater. 1961 edition, first published 1937. Archive.org. Elsewhere it is stated "The Japanese artillery during the Sino-Japanese war of 1937, well described by Eric Linklater in his novel “ Juan in China” (practically every word is true)…"

Journeys, and Central Asia

• Travels of a Pioneer of Commerce in Pigtail and Petticoats; or, An Overland Journey from China towards India by T T Cooper, late Agent for the Chamber of Commerce at Calcutta. 1871 Archive.org. Contains a map.
• A land journey from Asia to Europe : being an account of a camel and sledge journey from Canton to St. Petersburg through the plains of Mongolia and Siberia by William Athenry Whyte 1871 Archive.org
• The River of Golden Sand: being the Narrative of a Journey through China and Eastern Tibet to Burmah by Captain William Gill R. E. Volume I 1880, Volume II 1880 Condensed [memorial] edition 1883 Archive.org
• Mandalay to Momien : A Narrative of the Two Expeditions to Western China of 1868 and 1875, under Colonel Edward B. Sladen and Colonel Horace Browne by John Anderson 1876. Archive.org version, also available British Library Digital Collection with rotatable images.
• Visits To High Tartary, Yarkand, And Kashghar (formerly Chinese Tartary), and Return Journey Over the Karakoram Pass by Robert Shaw 1871 Archive.org
• Chapter IV-V concerning Cental Asia, page 43 and "Mission to Kashgar in 1873" page 90 Autobiography and Reminiscences of Sir Douglas Forsyth edited by his daughter 1887. Archive.org, mirror from PAHAR. Forsyth was a member of the Indian Civil Service.
• Kashmir and Kashghar. A narrative of the journey of the embassy to Kashghar in 1873-74 by H W Bellew, Surgeon-Major, Bengal Staff Corps 1875 Archive.org
• A varied life: a record of military and civil service, of sport and of travel in India, Central Asia and Persia 1849 -1902 by Gen. Sir Thomas Edward Gordon. 1906 Archive.org. Appointed to the Indian Army Indian Staff Corps 1862, appointed to the Kashgar Mission in 1873.

The Roof of the World : being a narrative of a journey over the high plateau of Tibet to the Russian Frontier and the Oxus Sources on Pamir by Lieutenant-Colonel T E Gordon, Honorary Aide-De-Camp to the Viceroy of India, lately attached to the Special Mission to Kashghar 1876 Archive.org. Includes Kashghar.

• Across Chrysê, being the narrative of a journey of exploration through the South China border lands from Canton to Mandalay by Archibald R Colquhoun, Executive Engineer, Indian Public Works. Volume I 3rd edition 1883 (probably first published also 1883), Volume II 1883 Archive.org. Also available Volume I, Volume II 1883 British Library Digital Collection with rotatable images. Chryse (Chrysê) is the Greek short name of gold-producing Chryse Chersonesos (The Golden Peninsula) in the East Indies (Wikipedia)

Report on the Railway Connexion of Burmah and China ... with account of exploration-survey by H. S. Hallett. Accompanied by surveys, vocabularies and appendices by Archibald R Colquhoun 1888

• An Australian in China, being the narrative of a quiet journey across China to British Burma by George Ernest Morrison 2nd edition 1895 Archive.org. Also available British Library Digital Collection 1895 [1st edition?] with rotatable images.
• China; Report on a Journey from Peking to Shanghai Overland. Presented to both Houses of Parliament June 1898 HMSO 1898. HathiTrust Digital Library.
• A Yankee on the Yangtze; being a narrative of a journey from Shanghai through the central kingdom to Burma by William Edgar Geil ... With one hundred full-page illustrations 1904 London edition with a map Archive.org
• From Peking to Mandalay: A Journey from North China to Burma Through Tibetan Ssuchʻuan and Yunnan by R F Johnston 1908 Archive.org. Incomplete map. Map from the Gutenberg.org edition.
• Macartney at Kashgar: New Light on British, Chinese and Russian Activities in Sinkiang, 1890-1918 by C.P. Skrine and Pamela Nightingale. 1973. Link to a pdf download PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. Archive.org version, 2005 reprint.

Macartney’s wife Catherine wrote of her time at Kashgar in An English Lady in Chinese Turkestan first published 1931. Link to a pdf download PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. Archive.org mirror version.

A later biography is The Diplomat of Kashgar: A Very Special Agent. The Life of Sir George Macartney, 18 January 1867-19 May 1945 by James McCarthy.

Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia by Ella Sykes and Percy Sykes, 1920 Archive.org. Covers the brief period in which Percy Sykes relieved Macartney at Kashgar while the latter was on leave in 1916 but is really Percy's sister Ella Sykes’s travel account and says little about consular affairs.

• Includes a Map, in two sections.

Chinese Central Asia by C P Skrine. Indian Civil Service, British Consul General in Chinese Turkistan 1922-1924. First published 1926 Archive.org. Index.Hathi Trust Digital Library version where images are rotatable. The Consulate was at Kashgar. Clarmont Percival Skrine Wikipedia.

Also see Norperforce for more about the Kashgar Mission during WW1 prior to 1922.

The Antique Land by Diana Shipton 1950. Archive.org Lending Library. Another Archive.org version, mirror from Archaeological Survey of India at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. A memoir by the wife of Eric Shipton, the last British consul in Kashgar before the consulate closed in 1947.

• Diary of a Journey from Srinagar to Kashgar via Gilgit by H I Harding of the British Consular Service in China, 1922. Archive.org, mirror from PAHAR: Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.
• Moved On! From Kashgar To Kashmir by P S Nazaroff . Rendered into English from the Russian Manuscript of the Author by Malcolm Burr. 1935. Archive.org, mirror from PAHAR: Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset.
• The Old Burma Road 1945. Archive.org, Public Library of India Collection. Full title: The Old Burma Road. A journey on foot and muleback. From the diary, notes and reminiscences of Doctor N. Bradley. The author spent many years in China as a medical missionary. This is an account of a journey taken in March, 1930 on the granite slab road along which, 650 years earlier, Marco Polo had ridden with his escort of Kublai Khan's horsemen from Yunnan-Fu to Bhamo.
• Where China Meets Burma. : Life and Travel in the Burma-China Border Lands by Beatrix Metford 1935. Link to a pdf download PAHAR Mountains of Central Asia Digital Dataset. (If download does not display, located in Books/Tibet And China). A description of the book elsewhere indicates the author accompanied her husband, who was a British official. They lived for several years in the Shan States, Burma and then in Yunnan, southern China. From elsewhere, it appears she was the second wife of Stanley Wyatt-Smith of Britain's China Consular Service.

Japan

• The "Japan Gazette" Hong List and Directory, for 1874 Archive.org. Note: some of the text is missing- it is not clear whether this relates to the filming, or the original publication.
• A History of Japan by James Murdoch. v. 1. From the origins to the arrival of the Portuguese in 1542 A.D. -- [v. 2.] During the century of early foreign intercourse (1542-1651) / in collaboration with Isoh Yamagata. -- v. 3. The Tokugawa epoch, 1652-1868 / rev. and ed. by Joseph H. Longford. Volume I 1910; Volume II 1903; Volume III 1926. Archive.org
• The history of Japan, giving an account of the ancient and present state and government of that empire : of its temples, palaces, castles and other buildings, of its metals, minerals, trees, plants, animals, birds and fishes, of the chronology and succession of the emperors, ecclesiastical and secular, of the original descent, religions, customs, and manufactures of the natives, and of their trade and commerce with the Dutch and Chinese : together with a description of the kingdom of Siam by Engelbert Kaempfer [1651-1716], translated by John Gaspar Scheuchzer. Published 1727. Volume I, Volume II Archive.org

Reprint edition The history of Japan, together with a description of the kingdom of Siam, 1690-92, published 1906. Volume I, Volume II, Volume III Archive.org.

Engelbert Kaempfer, also Engelbert Kämpfer or Engelbertus Kaempferus. C 1685 Kaempfer joined the fleet of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the Persian Gulf as chief surgeon and in September 1689, arrived in Batavia. In May 1690 he set out for Japan as physician to the VOC trading post in Nagasaki. He was also the author of Amoenitatum exoticarum (Latin language) concerning Japan, published 1712 in (modern) Germany.

• Diary of Richard Cocks, Cape-Merchant in the English Factory in Japan 1615-1622 edited by Edward Maunde Thompson 1883. Printed for the Hakluyt Society. Volume I, Volume II Archive.org
• History of the English Factory at Hirado (1613-1622). With an Introductory Chapter on the Origin of English Enterprise in the Far East by Dr Ludwig Riess pages 1-114 Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Volume XXVI 1898. Archive.org
• A Diplomat in Japan; the inner history of the critical years in the evolution of Japan when the ports were opened and the monarchy restored by Sir Ernest Satow 1921 Archive.org. The author was in Japan from September 1862, when he was initially appointed to the British legation as a student Interpreter at Yedo/Yokohama. Includes the 1864 Shimonoski Naval actions, including British, page 102
• Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan multiple volumes from Volume III (no date of publication catalogued, but 1874) to Volume XLVIII 1920. Note, some editions are incorrectly, or not at all, catalogued for date of publication.
• Young Japan. Yokohama and Yedo. A narrative of the settlement and the city from the signing of the treaties in 1858, to the close of the year 1879. With a glance at the progress of Japan during a period of twenty-one years by John R Black formerly editor of the Japan Herald. Archive.org. Volume I 1880, Volume II 1881
• The Land of the Morning: An Account of Japan and its People based on a Four Years Residence in the Country; including Travels into the Remotest Parts of the Interior by William Gray Dixon 1882 Archive.org, Granth Sanjeevani Collection.
• The Japan Weekly Mail 1870-1917, broken range. Some book files are individual issues only, but others are for a six months or whole year period. Archive.org.
• The Japan Daily Mail , a broken range from 1888 to 1917. Archive.org
• The Japan Gazette. Issues from 22 September 1873 to 14 October 1874 Google Books, Archive.org version; 1877 Jan.-Dec. GB, Archive.org version; 1880 Jan.- June, Volume 25 Archive.org; 1880, July-Dec. Volume 26 Archive.org; 1881 July-Dec. Volume 28 G B, Archive.org version.
• Things Japanese : being notes on various subjects connected with Japan for the use of travellers and others by Basil Hall Chamberlain. 2nd edition revised and enlarged 1891, 3rd edition revised 1898, 4th edition, revised and enlarged 1902, 5th edition 1905 revised All Archive.org
• Queer Things about Japan by Douglas Sladen 1904, 2nd edition, first published 1903. Archive.org

More Queer Things about Japan by Douglas Sladen and Norma Lorimer. 1904 Archive.org.

• An outline history of Japan by Herbert H. Gowen 1928. Link to a pdf download STOU Digital Repository Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University, Thailand. Archive.org mirror version.
• Ten years in Japan : a contemporary record drawn from the diaries and private and official papers of Joseph C. Grew, United States Ambassador to Japan, 1932-1942 1944 Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.
• Sample pages Tales of the Foreign Settlements in Japan by Harold S. Williams. Reprint edition (1986) first published 1958. Google Books

Shades of the Past: Indiscreet Tales of Japan by Harold S Williams 1972, first published 1958. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.

Foreigners in Mikadoland Harold S Williams 1972, first published 1963. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.

Harold S. Williams Wikipedia.

Fiction

• Shogan: A novel of Japan, Volume 1 by James Clavell 1975. Shogun : a novel of Japan, Volume 2 by James Clavell 1975. The setting is Japan in 1600 and the exploits of the Englishman John Blackthorne. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library.

Gai-Jin : a novel of Japan by James Clavell 1993 More editions Set in 1862. Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library. Gai-Jin means foreigner.

James Clavell Wikipedia.

• The Ginger Tree: A novel by Oswald Wynd 1988 edition, first published 1977. Other book files. Set in the period 1903 to 1942, the novel follows a young Scottish woman who at the start of the book, travels to Manchuria to join her fiancé.

The Ginger Tree by Christopher Hampton. 1989. The story of the filming of the 1989 television production and the television script.

All Archive.org Books to Borrow/Lending Library

The Ginger Tree Wikipedia. The Ginger Tree (TV series) Wikipedia.