Keywords
Canton, Qing dynasty, China through Western eyes, Chinese culture, Chinese people, CALA, CALA chapters, Annual program, CALA Southeast Chapter 2016 Fall Program (Orlando), Chinese American Librarians Association
Description
Presented at the 2016 Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) Southeast Chapter Meeting, Rollins College, Orlando, FL. September 23, 2016.
Abstract
Walks in the City of Canton is a book written by John Henry Gray of Christ's College, Cambridge who came to China and stayed as a missionary for many years, and it was published in 1875. This project did a preliminary analysis of the text of this book digitized by Google from the Library of Harvard University and uploaded to the Internet Archive. The Voyant generated top 500 words are tagged selectively aiming to find the more popular nouns, adjectives and verbs, and their related topics, sentiments or actions. This analysis is combined with the observations obtained in the translation of some chapters of this book by the presenter. Through the textual analysis of this historical travelogue, the audience will be exposed to the most interesting, vivid and sometimes astonishing narratives and topics, such as monasteries, emperors and officials, execution ceremony, raising silk worms and manufacturing white wax, along with an extensive variety of topics from streets, shops, examination halls, to festivals, gardens and tombs. It also adds a fuller picture to the beginning of modern Chinese history, including Qing dynasty’s closed-door policy and the western allies' entering by force, and it shows its appreciation of various humanistic sensibilities to different groups of people, including the blind, the aged, the foundlings and the born to be drowned baby girls, and some related facilities and philanthropic efforts.
Publication Date
9-23-2016
Original Citation
Deng, Sai (2016). A southern Chinese city through the eyes of a British missionary: Preliminary analysis of the text of a historical travelogue. CALA Southeast Chapter 2016 Fall Program, Orlando, Sept. 23, 2016.
Document Type
Conference Presentation
Language
English
Publication Title
Chinese American Librarians Association
Venue
CALA Southeast Chapter 2016 Fall Program: "Visiting a Library, a Museum or a Cultural Institution in Your City" and "Discovering Chinese Images, Representations and Heritage." Olin Library, Rollins College, Orlando, FL.
Venue Date
2016-09-23
Copyright Status
Author retained
Copyright Date
2016
Publication Version
Author's version
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Geographic Coverage
Canton (China); China
Temporal Coverage
19th century
College
Information Technologies & Resources
Location
Orlando (Main) Campus
Department
University Libraries
Subjects
Guangzhou (China); Qing Dynasty (China); Voyages and travels; Chinese; Societies; Culture; Manufactures; Charities; Asian people; Guidebooks--19th century; China--Guangzhou; China
Collection
Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works
STARS Citation
Deng, Sai, "A southern Chinese city through the eyes of a British missionary: Preliminary analysis of the text of a historical travelogue" (2016). Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 52.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/ucfscholar/52
Included in
Asian History Commons, Digital Humanities Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Tourism and Travel Commons