CHIN 370 - Hacking Chinese Studies

Credits: (3)
College Curriculum: COLL 200
Domain (Anchored): ALV
Additional Domain (if applicable): NQR
This course is an introduction to leveraging the processing power of modern computers to study Chinese culture. This course will introduce you to a variety of newly developed digital tools, algorithms, and datasets that allow us to pursue new insights into traditional Chinese literature and culture. You will engage with new scholarship being published in the rapidly expanding field of the digital humanities and learn how to create digital research projects from scratch. You will be introduced to the basics of text mining, network analysis, mapping, and digital exhibition creation, among other things. We will draw examples from the imperial Chinese tradition and cover the challenges and rewards of working with Chinese language materials using computer systems originally designed for western languages (the lessons we learn will be applicable to people working in other non-Latinate languages like Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, and Sanskrit). While some of the materials we will learn to analyze are in Chinese, we will also work with English language datasets and literature in translation. As such, the class will be open and accessible to students who do not know any Chinese. No technical skills or programming experience required.