This guide identifies resources relevant to the VCE History - Revolutions units
Not to be confused with the Revolution of 1911, the Chinese Revolution of 1949 is sometimes known as the Chinese Communist Revolution or the Chinese People's War of Liberation. The revolution culminated in the creation of the People's Repulic of China in 1949, as declared by Mao Zedong. It is important to be aware of the social and political climate before the Revolution, which can help shine a light on the causes of the conflict; as well as the societal conditions in the aftermath of Revolution.
Area of study 1 - Causes - spans the period from the founding of the Chinese Republic in 1912 to the Communist victory in the Civil war in October 1949. Area of study 2 - Consequences - covers the period from October 1949 up to 1976.
For simple, broad overviews of the Russian Revolution try the Oxford Reference: History database. Alpha History also has a very useful Chinese Revolution timeline.
The Library has a number of ebooks considering issues around the communist revolution in China. We also subscribe to a wide range of scholarly journals. Both ebooks and online journals that can be accessed using your State Library Victoria membership.
Before you begin a search of our catalogue, make sure to read the Catalogue tab of this guide for a basic understanding of how to search.
To search our ebook collection, set the drop-down menu to the right of the search box to 'ebooks'. You can search your keywords anywhere in the record, or search more specifically within the subject as we have done in the example below:
Note that some of our ebooks can only be read onsite at the Library, either on one of our bookable public PCs, or on your own device connected to our wifi.
If you find a title that is particularly useful you can also search for similar books by clicking on the Subjects linked under the Details heading of the record. Remember to also search for works on China in the period before the Revolution for context.
The Library subscribes to a wide range of databases, most of which you can view from home with your free SLV membership.
Filter the database list by subject to see all of our History databases or Historic Newspaper databases.
Search full-text scholarly journals on all subjects published from 1700 up until 1–5 years ago. Articles published before 1923 in United States journals, or before 1870 elsewhere, are freely accessible.
Access a huge range of international and Australian content on business, education, humanities, medicine, social sciences, science and technology topics.
Encounter documents encompassing events from the earliest English embassy to the birth and early years of the People’s Republic. This resource collects sources from nine archives, including the School of Oriental and African Studies and the British Library, London, to give an incredible insight into the changes in China during this period.
Discover an archive of over 120 years of Chinese newspapers including The North - China Herald (1850-1941), The Chinese Recorder (1868-1941), The China Weekly Review (1923-1950), and Millard's Review of the Far East (1917-1921). Articles are full-text, fully searchable and viewable as images.
Discover an archive of nearly a century of one of the most popular Hong Kong English-language newspapers. Includes South China Morning Post (1903-2001) and South China Sunday Morning Post (1950-2001). Articles are full-text, fully searchable and viewable as images.
Access the complete content of the London Times, fully searchable and viewable as images.
Cross-search several British newspaper archives, including 19th Century British Newspapers, The Times Digital Archive, The Sunday Times, The Times Literary Supplement and The Illustrated London News.
Once you have chosen a database, you will need to search it by keyword. Use Simple or Basic Search for specific information, or consider Advanced Search when searching several interrelated concepts. Remember that you can filter your results by the kind of resource, or by the year of publication.
Consider doing the following:
An example of an Advanced search from the JSTOR database is shown in the side panel of this guide.
Here are examples of some articles that can be found on specific issues of the communist revolution in China, the causes and the aftermath.
These articles can be contradictory as different historians interpret the evidence of events in different ways. The articles will also have footnotes and bibliographies that can lead to further articles.
These are just a few examples of articles you can find using our databases and Article search through our Library catalogue.
Many of the Databases above will include digitised primary sources.
Another great source of primary sources relating to Communist China is the National Archives of Australia (NAA), who have digitised many of official records of the Australian Government. These are interesting documents, but quite extensive. The content varies, ranging from brief memos to lengthy reports.
Search the NAA records using the search term Communist China, and then use the "Refine Search" option to check the "Digitial copies only" box at the bottom of the form. This will narrow your search to digitised records that you can view online.
A collection of Chinese Revolution documents and primary sources.
Most of our primary sources relating to the Chinese Revolution can be found in our Databases - see the box above. Specifically, try navigating to the following collections:
Newspaper archives will be held in some of the collections above, and also in our database collection. See the box on Databases above.
China's political youth spreads gospel of resistance, H98.108/690A
SLV has a range of physical books relating to the Chinese Revolution. Many will be in storage, but some will be available on the shelf in the Redmond Barry Reading Room.
Perform a catalogue search using the Books scope. You can Ask a Librarian for assistance if you need to order an item from storage. Alternatively, use the Find on Shelf search scope to limit results to books you can read immediately. Note that SLV is not a lending library; books are to be read onsite at the Library.
To browse the shelves, try the range from 951.04 (Chinese history - 1912-1949) to 951.05 (Chinese history - People's Republic, 20th Century, 1949-). Chinese History (and Asian History more broadly) will be upstairs in the Redmond Barry Reading Room mezzanine.
1943 : China at the crossroads by 
China in War and Revolution, 1895-1949 by 
China : a modern history by The F ('Folio') series are larger books that don't fit on the regular shelves in the Redmond Barry Reading Room. This series is also held on the mezzanine, but items in the F series will be held separately to the B series. The F series is held on the west side of the mezzanine, over the door to the Cowen gallery.
Note that there will be other books on the Chinese Revolution held in other parts of the Library. For instance, books that are more focused on Communism will be held at 335.43 and books on the political conditions in China are at 320.951.
An example of how to perform an Advanced Search in a database. Here we are searching for information on the Sons of Liberty during the American Revolution in JSTOR. Other databases will have similar features.
