Contemporary Chinese Village Gazetteer Data

In 2018, the East Asian Library of the University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) proposed the Contemporary Chinese Village Gazetteer Data (CCVG Data) project, to create an open dataset consisting of data selected from the ULS collection of Chinese village gazetteers. Village gazetteers record statistical data on individual villages, covering the years from 1949 to the present showing the history and development of Chinese villages (the village is the most basic administrative unit in China). The CCVG Data project, the first of its kind, offers scholars a dataset based on the ULS East Asian Library’s growing collection of Chinese village gazetteers.

Since the project aims to represent as much of China as possible, gazetteers were chosen for inclusion based on the goal of representing each of China’s provinces, if possible. Within each province, gazetteers are chosen based on availability. It should be noted that the availability of village gazetteers varies by province.

To create the CCVG dataset, gazetteers were selected from the collection, demographic and economic data were collected from these volumes, and this data was extracted using a data entry platform designed by the ULS. The resulting dataset is published on this website for free download by scholars around the world. In November 2022, data on 2,701 villages had been processed. To ensure the consistency of the administrative village and the document type, 100 natural villages were removed. Data from the effective number of 2,601 villages were extracted and entered into a customized platform.

The dataset is available for download in .csv format. An interactive map with basic administrative information on each collected village is also included on the website. An interactive search platform with filtering, cross-searching, and visualization functions will also be put into operation soon.