Slide 1

Billy K. L. So CUHK GIS in Urban Cultural Studies: Reflections from the Project on Republican Beijing Billy K. L. So CUHK PNC 2010 City University of Hong Kong December 1-3, 2010

Slide 2

Republican Beijing- The project The project description The project description Title - Title - Beijing in Transition: A Historical GIS Study of Urban Cultures, 1912-1937 ( ) Subject- Subject- modern Chinese urban history Creators/ownership - Creators/ownership - Billy So and Lin Hui Spatial location- Spatial location- Beijing city (not incl. suburban districts and countryside) Temporal coverage- Temporal coverage- 1912-1937 Contributors- Contributors- PU (Ctr His Geo and Ctr Med His), PUnionU, ShanDongU (Law Sch) Funding - Funding - UD$135,000 from Research Grant Council, Hong Kong ( Project No. 450407)

Slide 3

Republican Beijing- The product Six Urban Cultural Spheres Urban morphology Urban morphology (i.e., city planning and structure, major government buildings, major landmarks, urban population patterns, and transportation patterns,) Legal cultures Legal cultures (i.e., police forces, military police, crime rates, medication, court systems, civil and criminal litigations, lawyers and law firms,) Medical cultures Medical cultures (i.e., traditional health care providers, modern hospitals and clinics, public health services, Chinese and western drugstores, patterns of common and infectious diseases, hygienic facilities,) Market cultures Market cultures (i.e., firms and shops of major businesses, banking and pawnshops, manufacturing enterprises, guilds, temple markets, urban taxation, land price, wage patterns, poverty patterns,) Religious cultures Religious cultures (i.e., temples, churches, properties, membership, leadership, welfare services,) Education cultures Education cultures (i.e., schools, universities, professional education organizations, traditional education providers, literacy providers,) An open GIS platform for specified common purpose

Slide 4

Republican Beijing- Our purposes Three main deliverable objectives: a) to develop a GIS dataset of historical information on the six selected urban cultural spheres; b) to document the spatial patterns and changes in each of these urban cultural spheres; and c) to explore possible relationship among these patterns. For what? For broader methodological and theoretical issues For advancement in fields of GIS in history, in Chinese history, modern Chinese history, Chinese urban history, geography, multidisciplinary history. For promotion of participatory and collaborative scholarship

Slide 5

Slide 6

Survey map of Inner and Outer cities of Beijing produced by the Office of Surveying and Mapping, Zhifang Department, Ministry of the Interior at a scale of 1:8500 in 1913

Slide 7

Map of inner and outer cities of capital produced by the Office of Surveying and Mapping, Zhifang Department, Ministry of the Interior at a scale of 1:8000 in 1916

Slide 8

Survey map of inner and outer cities of Beiping produced by the Public Works Bureau of the Beiping Municipal Government at a scale of 1:5000 in 1937

Slide 9

1928-29

Slide 10

1928-29 Temples and Churches

Slide 11

Slide 12

Tianqiao

Slide 13

Hutong in Tianqiao district

Slide 14

Building blocks in Tianqiao district5b Building blocks

Slide 15

Slide 16

Slide 17

Slide 18

Slide 19

Slide 20

Slide 21

Slide 22

Slide 23

Slide 24

Slide 25

Slide 26

Slide 27

Republican Beijing- Some experiences so far Immediate benefits Visualization of data Mapping of data Overlaying of data of different thematic natures (point spatial patterns) Statistical analyses (Geographically weighted regression, or GWR) Testing of existing views Exploring new enquiries and agenda Difficulties and limitations Technical problems (distortions, data matching, etc.) Data availability and accessibility Human errors from inputting data to other technical procedures Data organization Between GIS dataset and research enquiries

Slide 28

Republican Beijing- Broader theoretical i ssues to be addressed Qualitative vs. quantitative? Spatial vs. non-spatial? Two variables vs. multiple variables? Politics vs. socioeconomic phenomenon? Tradition vs. modernity? Structure vs. expression? What is urban cultural change?

Slide 29

Republican Beijing- The Prospect Better understanding of each cultural sphere? Better understanding of the interplay among these themes? Better understanding of an overall Beijing spatial pattern and its implication on urban cultural change? Better comparison to other Republican cities? Potential of expansion and improvement of historical GIS in open and collective efforts? Public history database in support of individual researchers?

Slide 30

Republican Beijing - The field GIS in Chinese historical studies Peter Bol & Ge Jianxiong (Harvard-Fudan) China Historical GIS (CHGIS) as a common base GIS, 222 BC to 1911 AD. Classical scholarship on Republican Beijing Sidney Gamble, Peking: A Social Survey (1921), etc. Approaches to modernity vs. tradition in Republican Beijing Civil society approach (Strand) Tradition in modernity approach (Novey) Cultural narrative approach (Dong)

Slide 31

Republican Beijing Legal Culture Sydney Gambles survey on the criminal justice system in Republican Beijing Republican Beijings police and prison reform Legal reform and legal cultural change Legal cultural change and GIS spatial structure (M. Ng) Police force, crime rates, and legal service (lawyers)

Slide 32

Police Force vs. Convicted Criminals 5 districts with highest nos. of CC (1912) 5 districts with highest nos. of PF (1912)

Slide 33

Police Force vs. Convicted Criminals 5 districts with highest nos. of PF (1928) 5 districts with highest nos. of CC (1928)

Slide 34

Police Stations and Criminal Rates

Slide 35

Law Firms and Criminal Rates

Slide 36

Law Firms and Police Stations

Slide 37

Republican Beijing Medical Culture Sydney Gambles survey of Peking health service Peking Union Medical College history and history of Chinas medical modernization Sherman Cochrans business history of Chinese medicine New cultural history of medicine and health GIS structure of medical services (Zhang Peiyao) Catchment areas ( street cars v.s. Chinese & Western medical services ), hotspot analysis ( Chinese & Western medical services ), GWR ( Chinese & Western medical services vs. poverty, crime rate, public toilet, soup kitchen )

Slide 38

Street cars and Western medical services (catchment area)

Slide 39

Hotspot analysis of Western medical service in 1914 Hotspot analysis of Chinese medical service in the 1910s

Slide 40

Hotspot analysis of Chinese medical service in the 1920s Hotspot analysis of Western medical service in 1929

Slide 41

Hotspot analysis of Western medical service in 1935 Hotspot analysis of Chinese medical service in the 1930s

Slide 42

Observations on catchment areas and hotspot analysis TCM more clustered but less so in the 1930s WM more diffuse in 1914 but became more clustered in 1929 and 1935 More WM in the northern city in the 1910s and 1920s; whereas TCM more in the southern More TCM in the northern city from the 1930s, but increase of WM more obvious in 1935

Slide 43

Hotspot analysis TCM vs. poverty TCM vs. public toilet TCM vs. crime TCM vs. soup kitchen

Slide 44

Hotspot analysis WM vs. poverty WM vs. public toilet WM vs. crime WM vs. soup kitchen

Slide 45

Spatial pattern of TCM For TCM, overall service supply highest in the western part of the north city WM has a statistically negative impact on the distribution of TCM Temples impact on TCM was higher in south city as compared to north city Business and industry had stronger effect on TCM in northern city Water tap has a strong and positive impact on TCM provision throughout the city Lawyers also had such impact. Southwestern parts in particular

Slide 46

For WM, overall service supply highest in north city Negative impact of temples on WM Churches had stronger impact on WM in south city as compared to north city Water tap had positive effect on WM overall Lawyers had positive impact on WM in particular in the western part of the north city Spatial pattern of WM

Slide 47

Republican Beijing- Market Culture Gambles Peking market Recycling culture Beijing market culture revisited: GIS Market spatial patterns? Tianqiao market locational patterns?

Slide 48

Map 1

Slide 49

Map 2

Slide 50

Map 3

Slide 51

Map 4

Slide 52

Map 5: Open markets, pawnshops and the poor Modern bank Open market Pawnshop

Slide 53

Map 6: Tianqiao distrist closeup with 300+ shops and hawker stands

Slide 54

Table 1: Examples of 36 shops and hawker stands in Tianqiao (out of 300+)

Slide 55

Beijing urban culture in GIS space: Between compartmental and holistic approaches? A new technological challenge to humanities? Thank you !