The Knowledge is Power (KIP) Dataset

This repository preserves a curated archive of digitized images drawn from Chinese and Soviet periodicals, specifically Knowledge Is Power (KIP), a socialist popular-science magazine published between 1956 and 1962. Conceived as a non-commercial, scholarly initiative, the project reconstitutes and analyzes visual materials from one Chinese magazine and one Soviet magazine by assessing the degree of overlap between their contents. The KIP dataset comprises 14,325 images, extracted from the original page layouts, standardized through data cleaning procedures, and supplemented with captions. In addition, it includes two metadata spreadsheets that systematically record core contextual information for each image. As a substantial corpus of visual evidence, KIP supports research on transnational information flows between China and the Soviet Union. It is particularly relevant to scholarship in the histories of science and technology in both contexts, as well as art history and media history. The repository is built and maintained by Azim Ospanov and Zhao Ye, under the supervision of Prof. Cao Xuenan.