Digital technology ushers in new era for humanities research
By : Kenix Wong
Advances in digital technology have opened up new ways of conducting humanities research. Dr Tsui Lik-hang, Assistant Professor from the Department of Chinese and History and one of the leading experts in digital humanities in Hong Kong, is dedicated to linking up with scholars from different fields.
Novel approach to humanities research
One of the challenges in humanities research is how extensive amounts of historical information should be processed. The traditional way of studying history, for example, was to read the sources in the library, identify a topic worth studying, and then work on selecting and interpreting a huge volume of historical information.
“It is impossible to accurately make sense of the most important texts from a specific field, such as all the Chinese classics. But computer technologies can help us compare, screen, and analyse massive amounts of data, which makes research more efficient and broadens our perspectives,” he says.
Web technologies have also made historical information more accessible. Researchers can use computers to consolidate complex information and data to support their viewpoints and ideas, and revisit well-established opinions, he says.
This map compares the native places of “presented scholars” (jinshi) in the Tang and Song dynasties. The yellow dots denote examples from the Tang Dynasty and the pink dots represent Song Dynasty examples. For example, epitaphs and inscriptions from the Tang Dynasty contain many details about historical figures, such as their lives and careers, family background, and official ranks. This wealth of data is important for studying political and social elites and complex social networks in the Tang Dynasty. With the aid of digital technology, scholars can accurately capture and analyse connections between government officials and shifting power structures and their influence over government and society during this period.
Admittedly, technology has its shortcomings. For instance, it is still challenging for computers to accurately recognise all Chinese characters in manuscripts and printed texts, Dr Tsui says. Furthermore, premodern Chinese texts are usually unpunctuated, so scholars need to employ their professional knowledge to “train” computers to input data and digitalise. “The essence of digital humanities is to make the best use of the strengths of both humanities scholars and computational analysis, rather than replacing human intellect with computers,” he adds.
Promoting interdisciplinary collaboration
Currently the convenor of the “Digital Society” research cluster in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) at CityU, Dr Tsui shared his research experience with secondary school teachers at a knowledge transfer activity organised in May 2021 by CLASS. A digital map was used to compare the native places of “presented scholars” (jinshi) in various Chinese dynasties.
Dr Tsui invited scholars to share their digital humanities research at an online international workshop that he organised in June 2021. Discussions reflected on how these types of visualisations can aid classroom teaching. Furthermore, he invited international scholars to present at an online workshop that he organised in June 2021 on rethinking the “datafication” of culture in the Chinese world.
Dr Tsui believes an important way to advance digital humanities research is to connect different research groups and consolidate the strengths and resources of experts across scholarly fields. Also, as AI is taking giant strides, he expects data to play an even more vital role in humanities research, enabling scholars to revisit observations about history from fresh perspectives.