NUS Libraries has a comprehensive collection of Chinese newspapers published in Southeast Asia. Roughly 150 of them are in print and microform. Among them, 96 titles are published in Singapore and 34 published in Malaysia. These form the most valuable primary resources for the study of the Chinese in these regions, offering insights into topics such as economics, politics, culture and religion.

Since 2005, there has been on-going efforts to digitise these Chinese publications. To date, 90,360 issues from 21 Singapore newspapers and 6 Malaysia newspapers have been digitised and put into the Chinese Newspapers in Southeast Asia collection.

It includes historical Chinese newspapers as early as the 1800s, such as:

• Lat Pau 叻报 (1887-1932), Singapore’s earliest Chinese newspaper
• Sing Po 星报 (1890-1898)
• Thien Nan Shin Pao 天南新报 (1898-1901)
• Jit Shin Pao 日新报 (1899-1901)
• Penang Sin Poe 槟城新报 (1895-1941), the earliest Chinese newspaper published in Malaysia

It also contains newspapers with strong political agenda, including:

• Chong Shing Yit Pao 中兴日报
• The Union Times 总汇新报
• Sin Kok Min Jit Pao 新国民日报
• Kwong Wah Yit Poh 光华日报, the longest existing Chinese newspaper in Southeast Asia

Many of them are now rare or unique. The collection provides a wealth of information from pre-war Singapore, Chinese revolution, to events in the Southeast Asia. In our continuous efforts to preserve and make these historical records freely accessible, we hope to benefit the global research community.