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A dispersed manuscript world

Collecting, describing, and digitizing manuscripts that carry ritual, migration, belief, and everyday knowledge.

FocusCollections
Place / contextSouthwest China & Southeast Asia
Period2023–present
Reading timeAbout 1 min · English text · photos at your pace
Southwest China & Southeast Asia · Photograph from the original portfolio · Click to explore

A GUIDE TO LOOKING

Begin with
the page itself.

These photographs are entry points into a wider collection, not a complete catalogue of individual volumes.

Open the visual collection ↓
  1. The format

    Notice the shape of each leaf, the way pages are held together, and the organization of the written surface.

  2. The writing

    Different scripts raise different questions. An image alone is not a transcription, translation, or secure identification.

  3. The next step

    Follow the collection into digitization and research. The project records 293 co-collected manuscripts and more than 100 digitized.

化雨楼古籍专藏 · HUAYULOU

A catalogue you can explore.

203 scanned files, alongside an earlier register of 201 entries. Browse original titles, recorded classifications, and available reading copies.

Browse the manuscript catalogue

A growing collection

We have gathered manuscripts and folk texts spanning multiple scripts, languages, and materials. They preserve traces of migration, ritual, belief, and everyday knowledge. Our aim is to make dispersed local memories visible, researchable, and transmissible.

The earlier Southeast Asia collection page recorded 200+ manuscripts and folk texts. My current CV gives the broader project totals as 293 manuscripts co-collected and 100+ digitized. These are distinct measures: collecting a volume and digitizing it are different stages of work.

Description, access, and continuity

As manuscript researcher, curator, and digitization lead, I create descriptive metadata alongside digital copies. Materials have been shared with Minzu University of China, and 12 volumes were donated to the National Archives, as recorded in my CV.

The collection connects with my work on variant Chinese characters, ethnic scripts, and manuscript interpretation.

Project description adapted from my original website and current CV.

Earlier website text — preserved in full
Collect ancient ethnic manuscripts from Southeast Asia Last Page We have gathered 200+ manuscripts and folk texts from Southeast Asia (and counting). Spanning multiple scripts, languages, and materials, these artifacts preserve migration, ritual, belief, and everyday knowledge. Our aim is to make dispersed local memories visible, researchable, and transmissible. Contact E-mail: xiaoboge1109@gmail.com

THE VISUAL NOTEBOOK

Look a little closer

All 2 distinct photographs from this page are retained. Select any image to enlarge it; use the arrow keys to browse.

01 / 02 · Southwest China & Southeast AsiaAn open manuscript spread on yellowed paper, covered in vertical columns of handwritten characters with small red marks among the black ink.
02 / 02 · Southwest China & Southeast AsiaAn open manuscript with handwritten vertical text on the left and a large outlined figure with a smaller figure on the right, all on worn yellowed paper.

CONNECTED BY A QUESTION

Where this story leads

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