Leiden University Student Repository

Liu, Yuchen (2025)

Far Away from Home: A Study of the Catalogues of Leiden University Libraries’ Van Gulik Collection

Master thesis | Media Studies (MA)

The Van Gulik collection at the Leiden University Libraries consists of approximately ten thousand volumes of books in Chinese and Japanese collected by the Dutch diplomat and sinologist Robert van Gulik in mid twentieth century. It was first catalogued by Van Gulik himself, and later by librarians of the Sinological Institute of Leiden University. This thesis provides a detailed chronological examination of the catalogues of the collection, regarding them as a device for libraries to construct knowledge. In doing so, it addresses the research question of how cataloguing practices are an instrument of power, focusing in this case on the power exerted in a Western academic library context over an overseas, Chinese, collection. Key findings include traces in the treatment of the collection left by its colonial background and the marginalization of cultures that have been overshadowed from Westernized library management perspectives.

catalogues, library, overseas collection, postcolonialism, knowledge construction

Author

Liu, Yuchen

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Book and Digital Media Studies

Supervisors

O'Daly, Irene

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en