Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies is a multi- and inter-disciplinary enterprise covering the study of China across all disciplines. It developed mainly from two sources. First, a long-standing tradition of Sinology, still strong in Europe, has used philological and literary tools to study mainly the humanities and pre-modern China. Second, from the Second World War, an “area studies” approach – initially closely linked to US foreign policy needs and remaining predominant in the US, Canada and Australia – has focused on modern China using interdisciplinary (mainly social science) methods. More recently, China’s rapid growth has led to the rapid expansion of the field, while scholars originally from the PRC have led a trend to identify primarily with a discipline rather than an area. Oxford Bibliographies in Chinese Studies provides an authoritative guide to the key works across the whole field, pointing researchers and practitioners at all levels to the most important scholarship in European languages as well as in Chinese (and Japanese), and giving scholars working in other fields easier access to scholarship on China. The subjects covered in the initial launch provide broad guidance to major areas of study, while later additions focus more specifically on key issues or topics of debate.
