Digital Humanities Research

An Investigation of the Construction of a Digital Humanities Academic System in China through Content Analysis and Literature Study Based on Practical Projects

Xia Cuijuan, Qi Tianjiao, Xu Bishan

2023, 3(4): 3-36.

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We take the practical projects related to the construction of databases, datasets, knowledge bases, corporas, and related tools or platforms that can be publicly accessed on the Internet for the purpose of supporting China Study as the research objects, and take the systematic theory and paradigm required for the comprehensive construction of “China's Independent Digital Humanities Academic System” as the reference, and use the content analysis method to conduct content coding and statistical analysis of the construction of the practical projects from different dimensions. Then the systematic literature review method is used, supplemented by the network survey method and the expert inter-view method, to summarize and refine the theory and paradigm construction and the methodological and technological application innovations based on the practice projects. Finally, the comparative research method is used to place China's Digital Humanities practice in the global Digital Humanities development perspective, to deeply explore the current situation and characteristics of China's Digital Humanities practice, to identify hot spots and key points, difficulties and gaps, and assess the direction and trend. In addition, we will try to “focus on what we are doing” and systematically summarise the existing practical experience to investigate the current status of the creation of theory and paradigm, methodological and technological innovations of "China's Independent Digital Humanities Academic System", so as to provide references for exploring the construction of “Independent Knowledge System” in the field of Digital Humanities.

Theories, Methods and Developmental Challenges to Literary Computing——Interview with Dr.Liu Yang

Liu Yang, Yu Siqi

2023, 3(4): 37-48.

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Literary Computing aims to explore the utilization of large-scale textual data and computer technology for interpreting literary works. It represents a crucial subfield within the realm of digital humanities. However, high-quality research in this field remains relatively scarce within the current Chinese literary community. This article presents an interview with Dr. Liu Yang, an associate professor in the Chinese Department at Chongqing University and a leading scholar in this domain. The discussion covers algorithm criticism, quantification of literary concepts, the integration of technology with traditional literary research, digital tools in literary creation, ideal models for digital humanities education, and the future forms of literature. Dr. Liu Yang argues that while the interpretation of literary works may be subjective, there are underlying objective patterns present. Any literary concept can be quantified; what is needed is a more nuanced approach. It is essential to strive towards integrating techniques from other fields with traditional literary criticism and literary theory. The greatest barrier in this endeavor lies not in the mastery of technology but in the significant gap between the arts and sciences, as well as the limitations of researchers' perspectives. In the future, the integration of literary computing and traditional methods will gradually occur, and interdisciplinary studies such as digital humanities will transition from a relatively marginal and non-mainstream status to becoming mainstream.

Challenges and Thoughts in Making Text Ground Truth for Republican Chinese Newspaper: Taking Jing Bao as an Example

Xie Jia, Yip SukMan

2023, 3(4): 49-62.

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Many researchers have explored the use of machine learning for optical character recognition (OCR), particularly in Europe and North America, and many projects are producing ground truth (GT) data for this purpose. It is different when it comes to non-Latin script (NLS) material. The Early Chinese Periodicals Online (ECPO) project at the University of Heidelberg started to work on ways to produce machine-readable full text from historical Chinese newspapers in 2021.ECPO uses different machine-learning approaches, including convolutional neural networks, to develop a semi-automatic pipeline to produce machine-readable full text. We chose the entertainment newspaper JingBao (The Crystal, 1919-1940) as the basis for our experiments.

Watching Historical Films Through AI: Reflection on Image Retrieval from Heritage Collections

Beatriz Tadeo Fuica, Olivier Buisson, Claude Mussou, Trans.Liu Sicheng

2023, 3(4): 63-77.

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Computer tools allow us to watch films differently and offer film scholars the opportunity to ask diverse research questions and imagine innovative methods. This article focuses, more precisely, on how film historians could benefit from Artificial Intelligence (AI), a tool which has not been used much in the field. The objective is to share first round of experiments using Snoop, an AI developed by a collaboration between the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA) and the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA), on a corpus of historical films that, because they have been aired on television, are available for research from the INA collections. Following an exploratory approach, Snoop allowed us to retrieve shared motifs in a corpus of historical films. In addition to discussing challenges and findings, this article aims to evaluate the overall experience and open new line of inquiry. From a historiographical point of view, we aim to assess whether, and if so, how, AI systems are useful tools for the implementation of different method that both answer new research questions and revisit old ones.

An On-Site Study and Its GIS Presentation of the Grand Canal in Painting Album of the Great Canal Journeys by Qian Gu and Visual Travelogue of a Journey Through the Waterways by Zhang Fu of Ming Dynasty

Chien Chin-Sung, Liao Hsiung-Ming, Wang Yong, Zhang Shujun, Tang Chen, Yan Cheng, Xie Dinghong

2023, 3(4): 78-128.

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Qian Gu(钱穀)’s Painting Album of the Great Canal Journeys(《纪行图册》)was based on Wang Shizhen(王世贞)’s Shi Jin Ji Xing(《适晋纪行》)in the fourth year of the Longqing reign(1570) in June and was painted into 32 scenes from Cangshan Xiaozhi Garden(仓山小祗园) to Yangzhou Yangzi Bridge(扬州扬子桥).Zhang Fu(张复)’s Visual Travelogue of A Journey Through the Waterways(《水程图》)was drawn on the boat going north when Wang Shizhen entered the position of Taipu(太仆) in the second year of Wanli(1574) in February.He depicted 52 scenes from Shao Bo(邵伯)to Tongzhou(通州).Both works were done in a realistic style and are considered exceptional in the Ming dynasty’s painting history. This article uses the on-site study method to undertake three tasks. First, since Wang Shizhen’s trip to the north coincided with the Great Canal’s changing period during the completion of the Longqing Xinhe(隆庆新河)and the discussion of the Jiahe(泇河),this article intends to digitize all the waterways they passed through. Second, Qian Gu stated that he wanted to record the true landscape at that time, so this article uses travel diaries, local gazetteers, ancient and modern maps, and my own research results through the on-site study to explain each illustration and verify the degree of realism depicted by the painters. Third, the value of the more than 80 scenes is like discovering a large box of Ming dynasty videotapes. This article will reveal the true appearance of the Great Canal in the Ming dynasty in a visual and expressive manner through the true nature of the scenes.

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