Southeast Asia Collection: E-Archives and Databases

Digitized materials offer an array of Western perspectives and sources on China and Southeast Asia spanning several centuries, from the first British mission to China in 1792-1794 through to the mid 20th century. This collection is divided into several modules, the most useful of which include Asian Economic History, Series 1 and 2.

The Bibliography of Asian studies contains bibliographic citations on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present. I recommend that you use this resource for finding electronic versions of articles and books, as it connects directly to the Yale Library catalogue when on VPN.

This resource includes numerous separate collections all housed under the same name. For Southeast Asian Studies, pay particular attention to: Ambassador Graham Martin and the Saigon Embassy's Back Channel Communication Files, 1963-1975; America in Protest: Records of Anti-Vietnam War Organizations, The Vietnam Veterans Against the War; Indochina, France, and the Viet Minh War, 1945-1954: Records of the U.S. State Department, Part 1: 1945-1949; Intelligence Reports from the National Security Council's Vietnam Information Group, 1967-1975; The International Women's Movement: The Pan Pacific Southeast Asia Women's Association of the USA, 1950-1985 ; U.S. Military Advisory Effort in Vietnam: Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam, 1950-1964; U.S. Relations and Policies in Southeast Asia, 1944-1958: Records of the Office of Southeast Asian Affairs

The purpose of this unique online collection is to provide students and researchers with the declassified documentary record about the successes and failures of the U.S. intelligence community in the Far East during the Cold War (1945-1991). Particular emphasis is given to America’s principal antagonists in Asia during the Cold War era: the People’s Republic of China, North Korea and North Vietnam. However, countries such as Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia are covered as well.

Presenting a case study of U.S. policy towards a third world ally, this collection documents the often conflicting interests which arose between the U.S. and President Marcos. Events covered include the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr.; the rise of Communist and Muslims insurgencies during the 1970s and 1980s; the emergence of a small, but vocal, opposition movement in the United States; and Marcos' fall in 1986.

South and Southeast Asian Literature is a searchable collection of fiction and poetry written in English by authors from South and Southeast Asia and their Diasporas. Focusing on works composed during the late-colonial and postcolonial eras, the collection will also feature author interviews and manuscript materials that will shed additional light on the rich literary heritage and emerging traditions of this region. New content is uploaded on a biweekly basis, giving users immediate access to a steadily growing treasury of classic, rare, and contemporary literature. The database currently has over 99,890 pages.

earchable and browsable database of Asian American plays. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays. Users can limit search by genre, settings, performers, theater name, production company, author, gender, and more. Asian American Drama brings together more than 250 plays representing the various ethnicities within the Asian American community. Along with many works by writers of Japanese, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Chinese descent, the collection includes plays by writers of Hawaiian, Indian, Thai, Korean, Persian, and Malaysian ancestry, along with related biographical, production, and theatrical information. The collection begins in the late nineteenth century and continues to the writings of contemporary playwrights. Some 50% of the plays have never been published before.

This collection provides a window into the political, social, and economic development of Cambodia, the rapidly maturing 'modern' state in the heart of Southeast Asia. Traced here is the critical legacy of Prince Norodom Sihanouk (1922-2012), the nation's controversial and paradoxical leader. Khmer nationalism, loyalty to the monarch, struggle against injustice and corruption, and protection of the Buddhist religion were in the forefront of developments in this period.

The Dutch East Indies experienced the replacement of company rule by Dutch government rule and the complete transformation of Java into a colonial society and the successful extension of colonial rule to Sumatra and the eastern archipelago during the early 20th century. The boundaries of the modern state of Indonesia were defined during this time and the process of generally exploitative political, military, and economic integration began. This collection comprises correspondence, studies and reports, cables, maps, and other kinds of documents related to U.S. consular activities.

This archive treats the political affairs of Laos in the 1960s, when the United States supported the government of Souvanna Phouma in the face of North Vietnamese aggression. The collection ... offers a wide range of materials from U.S. diplomats including special reports on political and military affairs; studies and statistics on socioeconomic matters; interviews and minutes of meetings with foreign government officials; conference proceedings and international legal documents; full texts of instructions and cables sent and received by U.S. diplomatic personnel; reports and translations from foreign journals and newspapers; translations of high-level foreign government documents, such as speeches; and memoranda, official reports, and transcripts of political meetings and assemblies.

The Observer was a weekly newspaper published by the Command Information Division of the U.S. Military Assistance Command's Office of Information. It was the official organ of the Military Assistance Command, and it carried official news about and for American troops in Vietnam. As such, it goes without saying that it was carefully edited to make certain it did not print news articles favorable to the communist enemy. The Military Assistance Command spread more than 80,000 weekly Observers among all points in Vietnam in which American troops were domiciled.

The records in this collection cover the internal and foreign policies, personalities, and events in a pivotal period of Indonesian history. The charismatic leader of Indonesia, Achmed Sukarno, steered his country between the political machinations of the Army Staff and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). These records consist of essential memoranda, correspondence, telegrams, memoranda of conversations, reports, and news articles and cover all aspects of U.S. relations with Indonesia, Indonesian internal affairs, and Indonesia's relations with its neighbors.

The Southeast Asia Digital Library (SEADL) exists to provide educators, students, scholars and members of the general public with a wide variety of materials published or otherwise produced in Southeast Asia. Drawn largely from the collections of universities and scholars in this region, SEADL contains digital facsimiles of books and manuscripts, as well as multimedia materials and searchable indexes of additional Southeast Asian resources. Nations represented in the collection include Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Almost all of the writings in Balinese were digitized and preserved here in 2011 by the Internet Archive from their major library in Denpasar, Bali. A official in the cultural ministry said that this collection is "90% of all writings in Balinese." Most of the Balinese literature is written on palm leaves, or Lontar. Some were not digitized because of the culturally sensitive materials they contain. This makes the Balinese the first to have their complete literature online and available for free.

The Committee on Research Materials on Southeast Asia (CORMOSEA) is a committee of the Southeast Asia Council (SEAC) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS). It was established to enhance the collection of Southeast Asia research materials and to assist in making them available to Southeast Asia scholars, faculty, and students nationwide.

SouthEast Asian Images & Texts brings together, in digital form, two categories of primary and secondary resources: research and teaching materials collected by University of Wisconsin faculty and staff; and unique or valuable items related to these fields held by the University of Wisconsin Libraries. This collection contains digitized images, including photographs and slides, that librarians, scholars, and other subject specialists have deemed important to these fields of study will be added to the collection on an ongoing basis.

The works listed in this guide have been selected because they have extensive references to the colonial period in Southeast Asia or because they were published in the colonial era. The time period of the colonial era varies according to country, beginning as early as the 16th century in the Philippines and as late as the mid 19th century for the countries of Indochina. Thailand was never colonized but works covering Thailand during the colonization of its neighbors are included. The colonial period ends in the years immediately following World War II.

Southeast Asia Visions is a collection of European travel accounts of pre-modern Southeast Asia from Cornell University Library's John M. Echols Collection. The site provides online access to more than 350 books written in English and French.

The Claire Holt Papers, #14/27/2648, comprise approximately 1,780 slides of Indonesia, which were created for the Cornell Indonesian Arts Project. Subjects include art, architecture, ceremonies, landscapes, painting, people, sculpture, textiles, and theater. The manuscript collection also contains typescript notes about a trip to Indonesia in 1955-1956.

The exhibition, Treasures of the Asia Collections, is designed to showcase some of the many items in the Cornell University Library's collection documenting the cultures of Asia.

Huge list of digital resources from multiple countries and material types.

HathiTrust serves as a repository for partner university libraries and other institutions to archive and share their digitized collections.