New paper on the space of cinema in Shanghai (1919-1943)

Historian Zhao Weiqing (赵伟清) has contributed a new essay on the Virtual Shanghai platform on the process and underlying factors of change in the space of cinema in the foreign settlements of Shanghai before 1949. Written in Chinese and entitled 上海租界内电影院空间分布的演变过程及原因探析(1919-1943)[Shanghai zujie nei dianyingyuan kongjian fenbu de yanbian guocheng ji yuanyin tanxi], the papers offers original insight on the rise of cinema in the city. In the first decades of the 20th century, Shanghai  became China’s most important film center, both for production and distribution. The city hosted the largest number of movie theaters in China. From the establishment of the first theater in 1908 by a Spanish national, the distribution of movie theaters gradually transferred and expanded from the Hongkou District, north of Soochow Creek  (Suzhou River)  to the south bank of the International Settlement. This paper uses geographic information system to document and examine the characteristics of the distribution of movie theaters in the city from the perspective of population, traffic, war and other aspects. It analyze a series of factors leading to the particular geographical distribution and discusses the possible links between the space of cinema and urban development and urban cultural space .

上海市档案馆实施新的档案复制制度

据悉,自本年8月1日起,上海市档案馆对查档者实施新的档案复制制度。大旨如下:其一,取消收费。其二,对属于全文阅览和缩微胶卷性质的档案,每位查档者每天可免费复印50张(50张以上当天不予复制),无天数限制。其三,对属于原件性质的档案不予复印,只准抄录。

Wenhuibao interview: C. Henriot

The Shanghai-based Wenhuibao (文汇報), one of the main newspapers in the East China metropolis, has published a long interview of Christian Henriot (安克强) by journalist Ren Siwen (任思蕴) on historical research on Shanghai, digital technologies and the use of GIS in history. The interview, entitled “地理信息系统是关涉到想象力的技术” (GIS is a technology that matters to the imagination) appeared in the “Wenhui scholars” (文汇学人) section of the newspaper.

ACTOZ数据库平台操作与使用第一次培训圆满结束

2013年6月24日至26日,ACTOZ数据库平台操作与使用第一次培训活动圆满结束。参加此次培训的人员有:Jean-Pierre Dedieu教授、安克强教授、柯柔副教授、石路副教授及里昂高师东亚学院博士生蒋杰、赵伟清,巴黎政治学院博士生徐翀。

在为期三天的培训中,Jean-Pierre Dedieu教授与安克强教授为参与培训的学员详细讲解了该数据库平台的使用方法和操作步骤。培训采取授课与实践相结合的方式,每天上午进行理论讲解,下午通过上机操作熟练该数据库平台的使用,发现操作中可能遇到的问题。

此次培训主要讲授了四个方面的内容:1、ACTOZ系统概论;2、在Actions Main界面下的人物和事件输入;3、族谱数据的输入;4、文献数据的输入。

通过此次培训,WMS项目组的法方成员对如何使用ACTOZ形成了深刻的理解,这将为其他同仁的学习与使用带来极大的便利。通过此次培训所得到的一些经验和心得,正在逐步转化为文字,发布在Virtual Cities Toolbox网站,大家可随时查看:

http://toolbox.virtualcities.fr/user_manual

 

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图片资料由东亚学院刘芳提供,在此表示感谢!

安克强教授荣获“洪堡研究奖”

“洪堡研究奖” (Le prix Humboldt de la recherche)是一种面向所有研究领域的科研人员颁发的奖项,旨在表彰他们杰出的学术工作。奖项的获得者在各自领域的发现、理论或视角具有重大影响,并被认为可能开启未来的研究方向。该奖项每年颁发给100位杰出学者。所有学者,无论是在大学内任职或独立于国家机构,都有机会获得提名。“洪堡研究奖”的评审团由德国具有国际影响力的学者和已经获得过“洪堡科学奖”的研究人员组成。“洪堡研究奖基金会”尤其鼓励对于女性学者的提名。

由于他在将数码技术运用于历史研究中所做出的杰出贡献,里昂高师、里昂二大历史学教授安克强先生被授予2013年度“洪堡研究奖”。QQ截图未命名

相关内容可参看ENS DE LYON 官方网站:http://www.ens-lyon.eu/recherche/christian-henriot-laureat-du-prix-humboldt-197502.kjsp?RH=ENS-LYON-FR

 

“Wars made Shanghai” gets an official head start

The coordinators (Prof. Ma Jun 馬 軍 and Chr. Henriot 安克強) and the members of the SASS team (Prof, Jiang Wenjun 江文君, Li Zhiming 李志茗, and Mou Zhenyu 牟振宇; Ph.D graduates Lu Ye 陆烨 and Yue Qintao岳钦韬) of the “Wars made Shanghai” project have held three work sessions in the course of April 2013 to get the joint research project started. Moreover, one of the members of the IAO team, Prof. Christine Cornet,  will soon be in Shanghai for research in the archives and will team up with the SASS scholars.

The first session held on 10 April was devoted to an overview of the project, the presentation of each participant’s  past and current research, the set of tools to be used in the implementation of the project, as well as the modes of collaborative work. All the participants contributed to a lively discussion of the challenges ahead.

During the second session on 17 April, Christian Henriot made a presentation of the French institutional setup, especially the system of joint research units (UMR) and the unusual mix of institutions that characterizes French research units. Henriot took the opportunity of this presentation to introduce a mind-mapping application (X-mind) to demonstrate the flexibility of this application for “brain-storming”. This was followed by Feng Yi’s (馮藝) presentation of the digital resources for research at the Institut d’Asie Orientale, especially BN-IAO (IAO’s digital library), which the participants will use in the course of the project.

Finally, Henriot introduced the participants to one of the major digital applications to be used, Actoz, designed and developed by Prof. Jean-Pierre Dedieu in France. Actoz is a Filemaker-powered application. It is based on a thorough analysis of what constitutes historical data and how such data can to be broken down into significant units. Actoz  is a most powerful tool not just to store historical data, but to establish multiple links, many unforeseen or invisible to the human mind, through the data, to keep track of all the original sources and documents, to establish elaborate genealogies, to handle all kinds of cultural objects in relation with their contributors, and to integrate spatial data. This short description does not make justice to the many features to be found in Actoz, but it seemed important to highlight what amounts to a serious attempt at historical modelling. Training sessions on Actoz are to take place in Lyon in the spring and the fall, with follow up sessions in Shanghai.

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In the last session held on 25 April, the participants turned to a presentation of their proposed main lines of inquiry in the joint project. They formulated research directions based on their previous scholarly achievements that can match the objectives of the project. While each will pursue one’s own line of work, each will contribute to the collaborative platform based on Virtual Shanghai. Since collaborative work also requires both discussion and coordination, participants will avail themselves of a closed-circuit Wiki for internal discussions and well a regular meetings, real or online, every two months. One of the major features of the “Wars made Shanghai”  project, aside from substantive research, will definitely be the use of a large array of dedicated digital instruments to promote a new approach to history in both China and France.

启动会议第二次会议

2013年4月17日上午9时至12时,本课题组在历史所大会议室举行了启动会议第二次会议。到会者有安克强、冯艺、马军、李志茗、江文君、牟振宇、陆烨、岳钦韬。安克强教授先以里昂东亚学院为入口,向中方人员介绍了法国研究所系统的组织体系。进而又和冯艺一起介绍了东亚学院的网站及其内部的电子资源。最后,安教授展示了Actoz软件的起源和使用方法。抗战中的中国士兵

启动会议第一次会议

2013年4月10日下午,由上海社会科学院历史研究所现代史研究室主任马军研究员,与法国里昂东亚学院(Institut d’Asie Orientale)安克强(Christian Henriot)教授合作申请成功的法国国立研究基金会(National Research Agency)三年项目——“战争塑造上海”(Wars made Shanghai,1840—1952)在历史所小会议室举行启动会议。双方就研究计划、合作方式、运用工具以及预期成果,进行了广泛而深入的研讨。到会的还有作为该项目中方成员的李志茗、江文君、牟振宇、陆烨(以上为本所同人)和岳钦韬(复旦大学研究生)。其间,历史所副所长王健研究员亦曾莅临指导。

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The ‘Wars made Shanghai” Blog

‘Wars made Shanghai’: Toward a spatial history of 19th-20th-century Shanghai (1842-1952)” is a new collaborative project between the Lyon Institute of East Asian Studies (IAO) and the Institute of History of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. This project was selected by the French National Research Agency (ANR) under its 2012 Open Call for Projects. It will develop over 2013-2016. One segment of the project also received the financial support of the Rhône-Alpes Region under its CMIRA Research Grant Program. This blog will serve as a platform to present and discuss issues and highlights during the course of the project. English and Chinese will be the two mediums in which we shall communicate.

The P.I.s of the project are Prof. MA Jun (马 军), senior research fellow at the Institute of History (SASS) and Prof. Christian Henriot (安克強), professor at the University of Lyon and research fellow at the Lyon Institute of East Asian Studies (IAO). Prof. Ma and Prof. Henriot have a shared interest in the social history of Shanghai in the XXth century and have initiated collaboration on various projects in the past. The research team involved in ‘War made Shanghai’ includes a dozen scholars and Ph.D. candidates. Their profile will soon be available on the Virtual Shanghai platform.

In this project, we plan to address two challenges, one in terms of work hypothesis and one in terms of methodological approach. The history of Shanghai has been told from the angle of modernization, westernization, and astounding economic development. In other words, Shanghai appears in most narratives as a « success story ». A success indeed it was. And precisely, an even more astonishing success when one looks closely at the history of warfare and violence in the city. In this project, we argue that the development of Shanghai as an urban territory was conditioned by issues of defense and conflict. Shanghai thrived and prospered out of war. From the initial military foray and brief occupation by British troops in 1842 to the civil war (1945-49) and its ripples in post-war China, all through the civil rebellions (1853-55, 1860-61), revolutionary movements (1911, 1925-1927), and Sino-Japanese conflicts (1932, 1937), the city was the seat of forms of violence that affected both the spatial configuration, the distribution, composition and activities of the population, and the whole economic structure.

Wars have a tremendous impact on territories and their populations. Many cities were, at one point in their history, subjected to the grueling consequences of warfare. Some have suffered repeated assaults, successive cycles of destruction and reconstruction, displacement of population, and as a consequence, a remolding of their environment. Yet only a few large modern metropolis have gone through such cycles of sudden and thorough destruction, followed by periods of more or less rapid reconstruction, involving a massive regeneration of their populations. In this project, we plan to demonstrate that Shanghai represented an exceptional – though unfortunate — case of an urban space that from the mid-19th century to the late 1940s was engulfed in several conflicts. The city can also claim the sad record of having been the first city in the world to be exposed to and ravaged by the most modern weaponry and to have suffered from heretofore unknown levels of violence.

From a methodological perspective this project proposes to explore the history of war and civilian violence in Shanghai over a long century (1842-1952) from the perspective of  spatial history and seeks to establish the determinants and modes of transformation of the city that resulted from warfare. It sits at the interface of history and geography. The methodological approach to be adopted fits in the realm of “digital humanities”, in particular digital history. It will rely on the use of digital instruments tailored for and by  historians in the collection and processing of historical data, as well as in historical narratives.