Digital Humanities in Singapore

In Singapore, digital humanities (DH) is inclusive of the larger spectrum of the humanities, including not only its traditional disciplines (e.g., languages and literature, philosophy, law, geography, history, art history, musicology) but also anthropology, heritage studies, museum studies, performing arts, and visual arts. Multilingual, interdisciplinary, and audiovisual projects are particularly prominent. A community is growing around an emergent concept of DH, and it is developing results mainly in society-driven research projects. Although the DH label is relatively new, and DH dialogue across Singapore institutions is at its early stages, Singapore-based researchers have carried out digital research for decades. An increasing number of projects are home-grown, but several projects have also migrated to Singapore recently due to the high degree of mobility at Singaporean institutions. Current trends suggest that the next stage of DH history in Singapore will include the development of more formal institutions and more participation in global DH conversations.

Semi-Automating the Transformation of Chinese Historical Records Into Structured Biographical Data

This chapter explores and analyzes the new methods that the China Biographical Database (CBDB) project team has developed and adopted to digitize reference works about Chinese history, which is part of the important process of turning them into structured biographical data. This workflow focuses on the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and has implications for the continued improvement in the technologies for digitization and research into historical biographies in the Chinese language. These explorations and outcomes also demonstrate attempts in the Chinese studies field to transform large amounts of texts in non-Latin script into structured biographical data in a semi-automated fashion, and are expected to benefit digital humanities research, especially initiatives focusing on the Asia-Pacific region.

Performing the Internet

This chapter imagines alternative possibilities for digital humanities scholarship. Beyond technological pragmatism, the inquiry instead points to a richer engagement with digital infrastructure that can occur through the application of software literacy and expanded cultural practices derived from speculative traditions of thinking and feminist internet criticism. New methodologies are introduced, providing experimental models of engagement that allow for distinctive forms of performative and the development of dynamic and diverse knowledge.

The Intersection of Digital Humanities and Artistic Augmented/Virtual Reality Research in Hong Kong

Immersive media such as augmented reality/virtual reality (AR/VR) environments are growing in popularity both globally and in Hong Kong. In the artistic research sector, these projects may or may not have systematic digital preservation, data curation, or other digital stewardship components built into the creative process. Although digital multimedia preservation has been a long-standing topic of discussion for archivists, the complexity of immersive media projects raises questions regarding best practices and ensuring future accessibility. The author proposes that artistic AR/VR research in Hong Kong could benefit from the application of digital humanities practices, whether it be for archival, research, or further artistic purposes. This chapter reviews case studies in Hong Kong academic institutions to identify existing needs and makes recommendations for incorporating digital humanities practices into the creative and project management processes.

A Bibliographic Analysis of Scholarly Publication in the Emerging Field of Digital Humanities in Taiwan

This chapter focuses on the development of digital humanities (DH) in Taiwan. A bibliographic methodology was adopted where the scholarly publications in DH were collected and their bibliographic information retrieved and analyzed. Both co-authorship and article similarity networks were generated so social network analysis can be used to characterize the development of the field. The preliminary results show that in the earlier stage of DH in Taiwan more emphasis has been put on the construction and modeling of the cultural heritage databases; the later period has witnessed a wide variety of efforts to apply computational means within different branches in humanities, most noticeably history, Buddhists, and literary studies. The Computer Science, Library and Information Science, Geography, and History are the major driving forces for DH in Taiwan. The strong presence of Buddhists study is unique because of the strong influence of Buddhism on the Taiwanese.

Digital Forensic Investigation of the Xiyu Pagoda Lighthouse

This chapter describes a lighthouse heritage experiential education project conducted by Run Run Shaw Library, City University of Hong Kong. The project initiative aims to connect students to archival collections with the aid of digital technology. The research, or “digital forensic investigation,” was conducted on the Xiyu Pagoda Lighthouse, a demolished lighthouse that once existed on Xiyu Island, Penghu, Taiwan. The first stages of research have been framed within a six-step “forensic investigation” model. Proceeding research developed from and beyond the model and focused on resolving the inconsistencies encountered in the initial research. Digital humanities tools were utilized for reconstruction and representation purposes, accumulating evidence through an iterative process between primary and authoritative sources, and first-hand observation. Beyond demonstrating the way in which technology can be employed to enhance historical research, the aim of this chapter is to illustrate how library initiatives can serve to connect students to archival collections.

“Humanities Content” and Its Discontent

This chapter provides an overview of the remarkable but peculiar history of digital humanities and its contemporary development in South Korea. Computer-assisted humanities research in Korean studies began with the Wagner-Song Munkwa Project, which was launched in 1967 and lasted for more than three decades. This landmark achievement inspired many database-building projects, including the Sillok Project, in the following years. In the early 2000s, as a new discourse of “digital humanities” emerged in response to the “crisis” of the humanities in South Korean academia, another effort to connect the humanities through digital media to the culture industry gained momentum. “Humanities content” has since dominated the South Korean digital humanities landscape for over a decade. While recovering major digital humanities-related accomplishments, this chapter reveals that constant tension between the non-commercial, academic digital humanities and the commercial, industrial humanities content has been shaping and reshaping computer-assisted humanities scholarship in South Korea.

Expanding Scale and Deepening Engagement in Digital Humanities

This chapter consists of three major sections. It will start by providing an overview of the latest state of digital humanities development in Hong Kong. This first section is intended to serve as a follow-up to an earlier paper co-published by the author in 2015 that discussed the results of a questionnaire sent to the eight public universities in Hong Kong. After this discussion of the general landscape, the second section will drill down to a more institution-specific level, providing an in-depth case study of Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) Library, which is seen as a local pioneer and leader in digital humanities. This section will highlight the library's most recent initiatives and the positive responses of its university. The last section will discuss possible future directions of the HKBU Library, building on the successful partnerships developed with faculty members from diverse backgrounds, and the knowledge gained on data mining and data visualization during the course of the library's provision of digital humanities support.

A Digital Scholarship Project on Materialism Among Children and Adolescents

The chapter discusses a digital scholarship project collaborated between the Department of Communication Studies and the University Library of Hong Kong Baptist University. The main objective of the project is to develop a publicly accessible website to showcase the various research methodologies used in 14 studies conducted by the first author as well as their findings. These 14 studies were carried out to analyze how materialism affected children and youth in Hong Kong, Mainland China, Macao (Macau), and Singapore. The website shares original data sets, research instruments, interview transcripts, and drawings of interviewees. More importantly, research results are visualized in an interactive manner. It is hoped that the website could facilitate other researchers to develop models, test hypothesis, and conduct cross cultural analysis on materialism. The website is also designed to provide guidelines for educators and parents to counteract the undesirable effect of commercial communication to children and youth. This chapter discusses the research and the digital projects, marketing strategies of the website, and self-reflection of the first author.

Contexts of Digital Humanities in Japan

This chapter describes the brief history and recent trends in digital humanities in Japan, which had been led within the context of IT (information technology) and recently has strongly involved humanities researchers. According to the analysis of 991 technical reports by the Special Interest Group for Computers and Humanities (SIG-CH), the fields of linguistics and literary studies have been dominant while recently the history field has been increasing its number of the presentations, and many other fields in the humanities have been treated in a small percentage. Japanese texts have some difficulties in the digital environments. Although the recent developments in IT partially solve them, other attempts to improve the DH research environment have been activated. The policy of Japanese government to promote open science and open data will make DH in Japan more fruitful in the future.