Republican Beijing- The project

1. GIS in Urban Cultural Studies: Reflections from the Project on Republican BeijingBilly K. L. SoCUHKPNC 2010City University of Hong KongDecember 1-3, 2010

2. Republican Beijing-The project • The project description – • Title-Beijing in Transition: A Historical GIS Study of Urban Cultures, 1912-1937 (燕京思遷錄：民國時期北京都市 文化的歷史地理信息研究) • Subject-modern Chinese urban history • Creators/ownership-Billy So and Lin Hui • Spatial location-Beijing city (not incl. suburban districts and countryside) • Temporal coverage-1912-1937 • Contributors- PU (Ctr His Geo and Ctr Med His), PUnionU, ShanDongU(Law Sch) • Funding-UD$135,000 fromResearch Grant Council, Hong Kong (Project No. 450407)

3. Republican Beijing-The product • Six Urban Cultural Spheres • Urban morphology(i.e., city planning and structure, major government buildings, major landmarks, urban population patterns, and transportation patterns,…) • Legal cultures(i.e., police forces, military police, crime rates, medication, court systems, civil and criminal litigations, lawyers and law firms,…) • 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(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(i.e., temples, churches, properties, membership, leadership, welfare services,…) • Education cultures(i.e., schools, universities, professional education organizations, traditional education providers, literacy providers,…) • An open GIS platform for specified common purpose

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 • Foradvancement 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

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

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

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

9. 1928-29 廟宇及教堂

10. 1928-29 Temples and Churches

12. Tianqiao

13. Hutong in Tianqiao district 胡同

14. 5b Building blocks in Tianqiao district Building blocks

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

28. Republican Beijing-Broader theoretical issues 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?

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?

30. Republican Beijing -The field • GIS in Chinese historical studies • Peter Bol & GeJianxiong(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)

31. Republican Beijing – Legal Culture • Sydney Gamble’s survey on the criminal justice systemin Republican Beijing • Republican Beijing’s 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)

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

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

34. Police Stations and Criminal Rates

35. Law Firms and Criminal Rates

36. Law Firms and Police Stations

37. Republican Beijing – Medical Culture • Sydney Gamble’s survey of Peking health service • Peking Union Medical College history and history of China’s medical modernization • Sherman Cochran’s 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)

38. Street cars and Western medical services (catchment area) Street cars and Western medical services (catchment area)

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

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

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

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

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

44. WM vs. crime • Hotspot analysis– WM vs. poverty • WM vs. soup kitchen WM vs. public toilet

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 • Temple’s 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

46. Spatial pattern of WM • 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

47. Republican Beijing-Market Culture • Gamble’s Peking market • Recycling culture • Beijing market culture revisited: • GIS Market spatial patterns? • Tianqiao market locational patterns?

48. Map 1

49. Map 2

50. Map 3