Paper held at the Roundtable: Gender, the Popular Press and the Digital Humanities: The Development of a Database of Republican Chinese Women’s Magazines and Entertainment Newspapers Organizer: Liying Sun (University of Heidelberg) Chair: Joan Judge (York University) Discussants: Matthias Arnold (University of Heidelberg); Joan Judge (York University); Ling-ling Lien (Academia Sinica, Taiwan); Liying Sun (University of Heidelberg); Doris Sung (York University). This roundtable is part of a multi-year, interdisciplinary, international project on gender and the popular press in Republican China. The project combines new methodological approaches to the periodical press with the creation of a sophisticated database. This database, ECPO (Early Chinese Periodicals Online), facilitates research on these rich, complex, and voluminous materials by making several databases of women’s magazines and entertainment newspapers held in the libraries of Heidelberg University and Academia Sinica in Taipei accessible within one structure, and by seeking to create comprehensive linked metadata on these various materials. Matthias Arnold introduces the conceptualization, structure, supporting system and functionality of these databases, while other project researchers discuss specific ways the databases have enhanced their research on the periodical press. Joan Judge argues that a close examination of multi-registered and multi-vocal general interest and women’s journals facilitated by a well-constructed database, makes it possible to reassesses early Republican publications and the early Republican era itself. The commitment to democratizing and popularizing knowledge in these materials represents an important and heretofore little understood chapter in the interrelated histories of knowledge, politics, and social change in China’s twentieth century history. Doris Sung examines the strategies for representing women’s art in two women’s magazines featured in the database, Funü shibao and Funü zazhi, and argues that these journals provided a public space for foregrounding women artists’ achievements. Utilizing the database’s capability to cross-reference images, texts and biographical information, she reconstructs the discourse of “women’s art” in the Republican period. Ling-ling Lien focuses on the value and research possibilities of the entertainment newspapers included in the newly designed database. She argues that these newspapers both highlight the historical possibilities inherent in urban print culture and provide a plethora of detailed information about everyday life in modern Shanghai. Liying Sun reveals that many connections between women’s journals and entertainment newspapers emerge through the use of the new database. Focusing on a well-known women’s journal, Linglong, and a well-known entertainment newspaper, Diansheng ribao, she argues that despite their different themes and materiality, the two categories o

1. The Chinese Women’s Magazines
Database – An Introduction
Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 1
Roundtable “Gender, the Popular Press, and the
Digital Humanities”
Matthias Arnold, Heidelberg University
Association for Asian Sudies, 2013 Annual Conference, San Diego – March 23, 2013

2. Research project
Interdisciplinary research project „A New Approach to the
Popular Press in China: Gender and Cultural Production, 1904-
1937“
• History (Joan Judge, York University)
• Cultural studies (Barbara Mittler, Heidelberg University)
• Literature (Grace Fong, McGill University)
• Literature (Michel Hockx, SOAS)
• Art history (Julia Andrews, Ohio State University)
• History (Christian Henriot, Lumière-Lyon 2 University)
• Linguistics (Elisabeth Kaske, Carnegie Mellon University)
Funding: SSHRC (Canada), Humboldt Foundation (Germany)
Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 2

3. Research project – Magazines
Selection of four important women’s journals as research
objects
Women’s World (Nüzi shijie, 女子世界, 1904-07)
The Women’s Eastern Times (Funü shibao, 婦女時報, 1911-17)
Ladies’ Journal (Funü zazhi, 婦女雜誌, 1915-31)
Elegance (Linglong, 玲瓏, 1931-37)
Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 3

4. Methodology
1. Horizontal reading
close reading of all material included in one issue
2. Vertical reading
close reading of one particular theme over time
3. Integrated reading
reading journals against other journals, within the same
"family of journals"
4. Situated reading
reading journals against other source materials
cf. Joan Judge, Barbara Mittler and Michel Hockx ed., A Space of Their Own:
Women and the Periodical Press in China's Long Twentieth Century,
forthcoming.
Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 4

5. Database
Requirements for digital tool:
• Provide access to large amounts of metadata and images
• Cross-reference individual items
• Articles – Images – Advertisements (…and Agents)
• Collaborative online editing platform
• Research tool
• Read/browse magazines online
• Search analytical data (e.g. Keywords, genres) and metadata
• Open access via website
Conceptualization and implementation:
Heidelberg Research Architecture – Digital Humanities Division at the
Cluster of Excellence „Asia and Europe in a Global Context“,
University of Heidelberg
Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 5

6. DB Features
Important features
• Read/browse all issues online, cover to cover (if pages available)
• Every item on a page was recorded: articles, images, ads
• Pages arranged in original order, incl. blank/missing pages
• Records cover Chinese, Pinyin transcription, and English translation
• Some records provide full textual contents (Chinese only), esp.
advertisements
• All types of agents were recorded with their roles:
e.g. authors, photographers, organisations, translators, incl. mentionings
• Analytical data:
keywords, genres, together with magazine columns
• Search and filter functionality
Access: http://womag.uni-hd.de
Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 6

7. DB Features - Horizontal reading
Close reading of all material included in one issue
Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 7

8. Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 8

9. DB Features - Vertical reading
Close reading of one particular theme over time
Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 9

10. Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 10

11. DB Features - Integrated and situated reading
Reading journals against other journals
Reading journals against other source materials
Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 11

12. Outlook I - ECPO
Early Chinese Periodicals Online
(ECPO)
Collaboration Academia Sinica with
University of Heidelberg
Funded by Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation
(3 years)
• Expansion of database system
• Integrated access to data from
different existing databases
• Extensive and Intensive recording of
metadata
• Preparation and launch of Website for
Academic research (large proportions
as open access)
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13. Outlook II – Biographical data
Cluster of Excellence, University of
Heidelberg
Consolidation and expansion of
biographical data (in planning)
1118 agents - Xiaobao db
6172 agents - WoMag db
5910 agents - ECPO db
->Create repository for biographical
data to
• Identify unique agents
• Identify and merge reoccurring agents
• Expand biographical data (selected
agents)
• Possibly submit data to China
Biographical Database (CBDB)
Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 13

14. Matthias Arnold | University of Heidelberg | The Chinese Women’s Magazines Database - An Introduction 14
Visit the database at http://womag.uni-hd.de