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    28 December 2024, Volume 4 Issue 4

    Digital Humanities in the Era of Digital Reproducibility Towards a Fairest and Post-computational Framework

    Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel, Trans.Wan Peihan, Song Yixuan
    2024, 4(4):  3-19. 
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    Reproducibility has become a requirement in the hard sciences, and its adoption is gradually extending to the digital humanities. The FAlR criteria and the publication of data papers are both indicative of this trend. However, the question that arises is whether the strict prerequisites of digital reproducibility serve only to exclude digital humanities from broader humanities scholarship. Instead of adopting a binary approach, an alternative method acknowledges the unique features of the objects, inquiries, and techniques of the humanities, including digital humanities, as well as the social and historical contexts in which the concept of reproducibility has developed in the human sciences. In the first part of this paper, I propose to examine the historical and disciplinary context in which the concept of reproducibility has developed within the human sciences, and the disciplinary struggles involved in this process, especially for art history and literature studies. In the second part, I will explore the question of reproducibility through two art history research projects that utilize various computational methods. I argue that issues of corpus, method, and interpretation cannot be separated, rendering a procedural definition of reproducibility impractical. Consequently, l propose the adoption of “post-computational reproducibility", which is based on FAlREST criteria as far as digital corpora are concerned (FAlR+Ethics and Expertise, Source mention+Time-Stamp), but extended to include further sources that confirm computational results with other non-computational methodologies.

    Quantitative Literary Research: Concepts, Traditions, and Paradigms

    Liu Yongqiang, Chen Zixuan
    2024, 4(4):  20-31. 
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    This study uncovers a long-forgotten research system by redefining the concept of quantitative literary research, tracing its historical context, and re-examining its classic research cases. In the field of literature, quantitative literary research can be regarded as the predecessor of digital humanities, as there were already evidences of literary research using such quantitative methods as statistics and measurement before the advent of computer technology. The long-standing obscurity of quantitative literary research is bound up with its fracture in history. Since the 1970s and 1980s, literary studies premised on quantitative methods have gradually declined and been forgotten. As important representatives of quantitative literary studies, Wilhelm Fucks's and Max Bense’s contributions are closely related to contemporary digital humanities research and contain profound enlightening value. The former is crowned as a pioneer of Stylometry, while the latter not only skillfully applys mathematical knowledge to humanities and arts, but also creatively uses computer technology to produce literary works, A re-examination of quantitative literary research prompts us to consider whether quantitative literary studies should remain subject to digital humanities or develop into a discipline with its own specific research paradigm. This is crucial for literary studies in the digital age.

    The Scale of Time: Rereading and Rethinking A Companion to Digital Humanities

    Yu Min, Feng Huiling, Xu Bishan
    2024, 4(4):  32-46. 
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    Twenty years ago, A Companion to Digital Humanities (2004) brought together a group of young scholars to discuss, review, and examine the still-young history of Digital Humanities, creating a landmark work in the field’s development. Confronting the chaotic fog of the emerging discipline at the time, the book, with over 600 pages, presented interdisciplinary theories and practical activities, including new processes of academic production, dissemination and curatorship, offering valuable theoretical support and practical experience for both beginners and researchers in Digital Humanities. This article re-examines the key ideas in A Companion to Digital Humanities, linking them longitudinally to A New Companion to Digital Humanities (2016), and finds both continuity and extension in Western digital humanities over the past decade, particularly in areas such as Databases, Modeling, and Robot Poetics. It then compares these developments with The China Digital Humanities Development Report (Volume 1), revealing differences between Chinese and Western digital humanities in their discussions on digital scholarship, visualization, and cultural heritage. Furthermore, the article highlights that Chinese Digital Humanities research still neglects issues of interface design and aesthetics.

    Information Construction and Application of Modern Water Conservancy Map Based on TGIS

    Bai Jiangtao, Pan Wei
    2024, 4(4):  47-66. 
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    The modern water conservancy map clearly records the regional water body features in the Republic of China period, which has important value and role in the study of historical water system changes. On the basis of “Digital History of the Yellow River”, this paper takes the “Topographic Map of Ditches and Waterways along the Yellow River in Ningxia Province of the Republic of China” as an example, and with the support of TGIS technology and theory, the modern water conservancy map is informationized with modern geographic information technology, and then the spatial autocorrelation, fractal and irrigation efficiency are used to analyze the data. The analysis results show that: The irrigation canal in Ningxia had significant natural river form characteristics before liberation, indicating that local water conservancy facilities and “annual repair” in traditional times could not overcome the continuous influence of environmental factors such as frequent changes of Yellow River road, lateral channel swing, and unstable water volume on irrigation, which was difficult to clear through manual interpretation and statistical analysis.

    Study on the Spatial and Temporal Distribution Structure of Evidence Chain in the Testimony Collection of Former Japanese Bacteriological Fighters from the Perspective of Knowledge Reorganization

    Ren Yue, Tan Keming, Li Boyong
    2024, 4(4):  67-83. 
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    As an oral archive, the collection of testimonies of former Japanese bacteriological warfare members is a relatively comprehensive and objective historical document reflecting the situation of bacteriological warfare of Japanese invaders in China. It is suitable for mining based on knowledge reorganization theory to supplement macro historical facts with details from an individual perspective. This paper uses social network analysis and content analysis, Neo4j graphic database and ArcGIS GIS to visually display and discover related forces, experimental locations, department composition, branch information, witness relationship, defeated evacuation route and other contents in the file text. Thus, the complex relationship between the characters in the Testimonies can be expressed concretely; Taking the supply route of plague germ warfare in Ningbo as an example, the role of the research results in revealing historical details and excavating evidence chain network is demonstrated. There were also inconsistencies in some of the testimony. It provides a useful reference for subsequent more accurate and targeted historical data combing for key figures and sites, and provides a basis for correlation with other relevant research data, and also provides a demonstration for feasible oral history archive content mining. In addition, the institute makes a network of human relations, knowledge map. It not only fully confirmed the systematization and scale of bacterial warfare of Japanese invaders in China, but also as an intuitive, three-dimensional and visual knowledge picture, it is easier to understand and can be widely used in public history education.

    From Still to Moving Images and Vice Versa: Analysing Technological Cycles and the Use of AI to Study Cinema History

    Biatelisi Tadeo Fuica, Artuer Lezer, Trans. Liu Sicheng, Pu Xiaqing
    2024, 4(4):  84-99. 
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    In the digital turn of humanities, film studies has collided with new sparks after encountering digital tools and corpus thinking, which is particularly important for film history research. Using the image retrieval function of artificial intelligence tools, researchers can efficiently capture and summarize the required images and other information from the massive digital film corpus as a theoretical premise for more in-depth research. This article introduce the second round of retrieval experiments carried out in the early film corpus of the French National Audiovisual Research Center using the Snoop algorithm: Based on a review of the loop of motion image technology and theoretical reflection on how objects that appear repeatedly in film frames absorb, reflect and shape history, the study retrieves specific objects from the historical film corpus, proving that aesthetic associations will trigger historical analysis, thereby bringing the particularity of the background of the creation of the film corpus to the fore, and analyzing the potential and limitations of this research path.

    Review of Internet Religion Research in China (2000-2023): Bibliometric Visualization Analysis Based on CSSCI Sources

    Liu Lingyu
    2024, 4(4):  100-124. 
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    Since the rise of the Internet in China (2000), the intersection of “Internet” and “religion” has become increasingly intricate, presenting a multifaceted and complex landscape. In response to this, the political, academic, and religious sectors have actively engaged in the study of “Internet religion”, spurring significant developments in this field. Visualization analysis based on bibliometrics offers a comprehensive reflection of the overall landscape and evolutionary trends in the research on “Internet religion” in China. This paper analyzes 196 CSSCl (including the extended edition) articles from the CNKl academic journal database, covering the period from 2000 to 2023. Using a combination of CiteSpace visualization software, descriptive statistical analysis, and a close reading of the literature, it conducts a multidimensional examination of aspects such as research volume, scholarly contributions, and key themes. The study aims to clarify the development trajectory of “Internet religion” research in China and presents suggestions for future directions. The findings reveal that the research on “Internet religion” in China has undergone a progression from the study of traditional phenomena to theoretical paradigm shifts and, subsequently, to practical applications in governance. The research focuses on three core themes: “concepts and paradigms of Internet religion”, “phenomena and fundamental issues of Internet religion”, and “real-world challenges and governance of Internet religion”. This body of research can be divided into four stages: the “initial exploration of Internet ‘religious communication’, with sporadic and fragmented themes” (2000-2010), the “shift from phenomena to governance, expanding into a comprehensive research focus” (2011-2016), the “emergence of diverse and digital themes” (2017-2019), and the “collaborative development of the three sectors, leading to systematic research” (2020-2023). The study identifies key challenges moving forward, including overcoming the “stacking effect”, the construction of an autonomous knowledge system, the cultivation of interdisciplinary talent, and the empowerment of governance through big data.