A survey of modern and contemporary Chinese books on Japan.

1988 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 62450050
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Asian history
• Research Institution: The Toyo Bunko
• Principal Investigator: ICHIKO Chu^^-zo^^- The Toyo Bunko, Research Department, Researcher, 研究部, 研究員 (50017092)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): HONJO Hisako The Toyo Bunko, Research Department, Researcher, 研究部, 研究員 (50106639) ; TANAKA Masatoshi The Toyo Bunko, Research Department, Researcher, 研究部, 研究員 ; YAMANE Yukio The Toyo Bunko, Research Department, Researcher, 研究部, 研究員 (10086316) ; KAWABATA Genji The Toyo Bunko, Research Department, Researcher, 研究部, 研究員 (60142056)
• Project Period (FY): 1987 – 1988
• Keywords: Chinese views of Japan / Sino-Japanese relations / 中国訳日本書

Research Abstract

The present research project aims at clarifying Chinese past and present views of Japan by surveying Chinese books published on Japan. For this purpose the following two methods have been used.
1. Survey of books on Japan written by modern and contemporary Chinese. (1) A thorough investigation of Chinese books on Japan was made by consulting Chinese bibliographies. As many books as possible collected. (2) 289 titles were selected for annotation to be added to each concerning its views of Japan. (3) Together with another 91 titles, which have been annotated in other reference books, the present 289 annotations have been included in "An annotated bibliography of the Chinese books on Japan collected in the Toyo Bunko" as a result of the survey. 2 Survey of Japanese books translated into Chinese. (1) In intensive survey of Chinese translation of Japanese books listed in bibliographies was conducted. (2) Among over 5,000 titles published after 1978, humanities and social sciences related books amounted to 3,091 titles. These titles have been included in "A bibliography of Japanese books translated into Chinese, 1978-1987".
As a result of these two surveys, the following points became clear. 1. After the 1930s the number of books published increased enormously on contemporary themes of politics and economy, especially of Japan's invasion of China. 2. During the present decade, the number of books on Japan published has risen sharply, thus showing China's strong interest in modernization, politics, and economy in Japan. 3. Concerning the study of Sino-Japanese relations, our survey shows that Chinese have preferred historical research to the study of current topics. 4. A huge number of Japanese language study books were published. However, we have not included these books in our report.