Digital Humanities Approaches to Chinese Culture, Part 1: Tools and Methods For Textual and Historical Analysis

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

Recent advances in the field of digital humanities applied to Chinese studies have led to the creation of new computational methodologies for sinological inquiry designed specifically to exploit the full potential of digital toolkits and digital resources. The papers to be presented in this panel feature the utilization and evaluation of four outstanding new digital sinological methodologies and toolkits. Each presentation has been designed to demonstrate a productive strategy for exploiting digital resources using specific cutting-edge computational methods. Jeffrey Tharsen’s paper is focused upon new types of digital lexicography and how custom software allows for the efficient application of resources for analyzing linguistic and philological systems in premodern Chinese via his Digital Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese (edoc.uchicago.edu). Donald Sturgeon will focus upon how machine learning algorithms aid in the identification of text reuse and forms of intertextuality across the corpora of classical Chinese texts in his Chinese Text Project (ctext.org). Paul Vierthaler’s paper centers on using digital tools to analyze authorship in the Jin Ping Mei 《金瓶梅》 based in part on developing models of character usage frequency within and across digital textual corpora. Song Chen will present on his extensive digital network analyses of Geographic Information System (GIS) geographical datasets to create detailed prosopographical studies of the dominant political elite in Song-dynasty China. We are particularly pleased that Peter Bol of Harvard University, one of the world’s foremost experts in the digital humanities and digital sinology in particular, has agreed to serve as discussant.

Area of Study

• China and Inner Asia

Session Organizers

• Jeffrey R. Tharsen, University of Chicago

• Paul Vierthaler, Boston College

Chair

• Peter K. Bol, Harvard University

Individual Presentations

• From Digital Lexicography to Digital Philology - Jeffrey R. Tharsen, University of Chicago

• Automated Identification of Parallels and Allusions in Classical Chinese Texts - Donald Sturgeon, Harvard University

• Who Wrote the Jin Ping Mei? Stylometry and Machine Learning for Chinese Studies - Paul Vierthaler, Boston College

• Digital Approaches to Prosopography: A Study of the Political Elite in Song China - Song Chen, Bucknell University

Discussant

• Peter K. Bol, Harvard University