Over the past decade, the field of Digital Humanities in China has experienced significant development, encompassing infrastructure construction, research projects, and educational aspects. Although China's achievements have been presented in the international Digital Humanities arena, a comprehensive introduction in a visual format remains necessary. This not only aids the international academic community in gaining a deeper understanding of China's academic progress and promotes international exchanges and collaborations, but also showcases the unique characteristics of China's Digital Humanities and their resonance with global development trends.
Since 2015, there has been a notable increase in the number of papers related to Digital Humanities, particularly concentrated in the fields of library and archival studies, with a focus on databases, digitization of ancient texts, and data visualization. In recent years, research involving artificial intelligence, the New Humanities(新文科), Chinese literature, and social network analysis has also been on the rise. At the research level, the field of Digital Humanities in China not only focuses on applied research, social development, and technological studies but has also begun to pay attention to emerging areas such as disciplinary education, policy, and management.
The main body of the poster will present a map illustrating the current distribution of Digital Humanities infrastructure in China, differentiating categories (such as research centers, educational programs, research projects, and academic journals) and levels of development through varying colors and shades. In addition to some well-known international collaborative projects such as The China Historical Geographic Information System (CHGIS) and the China Biographical Database Project (CBDB), this poster showcases a broader range of research initiatives native to China. In Beijing, Tsinghua University hosts the "Jiuge AI Poet"(九歌) and the Journal of Digital Humanities(《数字人文》), along with the Image Index of Global Chinese Ancient Books(全球汉籍影像开放集成系统). Peking University boasts the "Wu Yu Dian"(吾与点) intelligent annotation platform, the "Song Yuan Xue An"(宋元学案) knowledge graph system, and the "Jing Ji Zhi Zhang"(经籍指掌) catalog analysis system for Chinese classical texts. Renmin University of China offers Digital Humanities Research(《数字人文研究》) and Bachelor(Honors)'s/Master's programs in Digital Humanities. In East China, the High Institute DH Research Center of Nanjing University, and the Academic Map Publishing Platform (collaboration) of Zhejiang University are important. The extensive dataset of the Shanghai Library Open Data Platform is also worthy of attention. In Southeast China, the Taiwan University Research Center for DH has 23 databases and 12 digital tools, and Academia Sinica Center for Digital Cultures has hundreds of DH projects(will be shown specifically on the poster). There is not much DH infrastructure in western China, but the "Digital Dunhuang"(数字敦煌) project at Dunhuang Academy and the DH Center of Wuhan University are both mature. Many new centers have also been set up over the last two years. Significantly, in 2023, the Inner Mongolia Normal University, located in the Northeast region, launched the first BA program in Digital Humanities in China, heralding a novel chapter in the educational landscape of Digital Humanities within the country. We have collected hundreds of pieces of information that will be presented in detail in the poster.
The poster will also incorporate QR codes linking to the detailed information of each project, providing a wealth of information resources for understanding the development of Digital Humanities in China, and further promoting international collaborations. We look forward to using this poster as a platform to engage with the international academic community in exploring the future directions of Digital Humanities, and to deepen cross-cultural understanding and collaboration.