Sino-Platonic Papers

Author’s Note: This blog post was originally posted on my older, now inactive blog, Eye on East Asia. I have included some extra links in this post which were not included in the original post.

Readers who enjoy reading about East Asian languages and cultures may be interested to know that a wide range of articles on Chinese history, culture, archaeology and linguistics can be found at the Sino-Platonic Papers website.

Shang Dynasty Bronze
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Sino-Platonic Papers is a series of monographs published and edited by the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. Many of the articles have been posted on the website and are free for download in PDF format. Some of my personal favourites include :

• New Research on the Origin of Cowries Used in Ancient China
• On the Problem of Chinese Lettered Words
• Dogs and Cats: Lessons from Learning Chinese
• Zhaoling: The Mausoleum of Emperor Tang Taizong
• Developments in Chinese Language and Script During the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
• An Investigation in Orthographic Variance in Shang Writing
• Guanxi: The Key to Achieving Success in China

There are also a number of articles which focus on other cultures in the region, including articles on some of China’s ethnic minorities and articles on Korean, Japanese and Central Asian history and linguistics.

• Uyghurs and Uyghur Identity
• China’s Dagur Minority: Society, Shamanism, and Folklore
• Computers and Japanese Literacy
• The Cult of the Bodhisattva Guanyin in Early China and Korea
• The ‘Silk Roads’ in Time and Space: Migrations, Motifs, and Materials
• The Earliest Tocharians in China

The full selection of articles can be found at the Sino-Platonic Papers website. New articles are added every month so feel free to bookmark the site for future reference.

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