The visualizations below show the volume of English- and Chinese-language books published from 1900–2008 mentioning topics related to the South China Sea as a percentage of all books published. (Note: Due to embed script limitations, the charts below are best viewed on a desktop browser.)

South China Sea

Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands

南海 (South China Sea)

西沙 (Paracel Islands) and 南沙 (Spratly Islands)

Data for the charts above come from Google Books Ngram Viewer.