The book series Chinese Folklore Documents Overseas was launched in Beijing on Jan 20.

The book was compiled by the Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage Research Center of Sun Yat-sen University and published by Shaanxi Normal University General Publishing House.

The first batch of 18 books primarily focus on presenting original materials, said Wang Xiaobing, chief editor of the series.

The book series was developed based on the "research on the compilation, study, and database construction of rare Chinese folk cultural documents and cultural relics preserved overseas", which was a major 2016 National Social Science Fund project, said Qu Ruixin, vice-president of the Shaanxi publishing house.

At the book launch ceremony, the series was also donated to the National Library of China.

The book series will further enrich the resources of folk cultural books in the collection of the National Library of China, said Shen Xiaojuan, head of the library's research institute.

The library will enable more scholars and the general public to read and make good use of these rare documents, Shen says.