LibGuides: Asian Pacific Studies: Find Primary Sources

Primary sources in Asian Pacific Studies

For many researchers in Asian Pacific Studies, primary sources are essential resources for incorporating the ideas and knowledge of those who are traditionally excluded from academic conversations due to systemic racism, sexism, ableism, queerphobia, and other forms of oppression. Many cultures have rich oral, artistic, and literacy traditions not represented in euro-centric research undertaken from a colonial framework. Primary sources can be used to contextualize research in the experiences of real people and center the voices of the unheard.

Primary Sources

A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art. Primary sources include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art objects. Interviews, surveys, fieldwork, and Internet communications via email, blogs, listservs, and newsgroups are also primary sources.

When would I need to find primary sources? If you're working on a history project, you may be asked to find and cite primary sources to analyze something from the past, like posters from political activism in modern African history. If you're working on a sociology project, you may be asked to find demographic data on homeless in Los Angeles. Both documents would be considered primary sources in each case.

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CSUDH Historical Images Collection This link opens in a new window
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The CSUDH Digital Collections are digitized photographs and documents from our collections, including the history of CSUDH, the South Bay, Rancho San Pedro and the Dominguez family, and more.
Global Issues Library This link opens in a new window
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Primary sources, books, and more on a variety key issues including border and migration studies, human rights studies, security issues, environmental issues, and revolution and protest.

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Online Archives of Primary Sources for Asian Pacific Studies

Filipino American Digital Archive (FADA)
The Filipino American Digital Archive (FADA) conatins images, documents, letters, and other mayerials related to the Filipino American Community in the South Bay.
The South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
Founded in 2008, in Philadelphia, PA, in order to document and provide access to the diverse and relatively unknown stories of South Asian Americans. This collection collects information from he South Asian diaspora in the United States, including those who trace their heritage to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the many South Asian diaspora communities across the globe.
Korean American Digital Archive
This collection brings more than 13,000 pages of documents, over 1,900 photographs, and about 180 sound files together chronicling the Korean American community during the period of resistance to Japanese rule in Korea and reveals the organizational and private experience of Koreans in America between 1903 and 1965.
Calisphere
Provides access to primary resources covering California history from 1780-present. Includes a themed collection on Asian Americans and items related to the Chinese Exclusion Act and over 200 artifacts relating to the 442nd Regional Combat Team.
Digital History- Asian Voices
Categories include: Asia Discovers America, Asians and the Making of America, World War II and Asian Americans, The Newest Immigrants
CSU Japanese American Digitization Project
The story of Japanese Americans in the 20th century — their migration to the United States, the Alien Land laws under which they lived, incarceration during World War II, and the Redress Movement — is a complex one. The CSU Japanese American Digitization Project, the 23-campus California State University system archives, and other, similar collections across the state now offer scholars, librarians, archivists, educators and the interested public far easier access to a wide variety of archival material about this crucial subject.
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
AIISF's mission is to promote a greater understanding of Pacific Coast immigration and its role in shaping America’s past, present and future. AIISF has created an online repository of stories entitled “Immigrant Voices."