Author: Cameron Campbell

New Online Search Function for Records of Officials in the 缙绅录 Made Publicly Accessible

We’ve made it possible to search the database of records for Qing officials that we are constructing from the 缙绅录, which was a sort of personnel directory published every three months (!) during the Qing, and listed approximately 13,000-15,000 officials each time, depending on the edition. We also have some editions of 中樞備覽 which list military officials. To learn more about the China Government Employee Database – Qing (CGED-Q), including our plans for the future, please visit our project page. We also have a paper in Chinese describing the database.

If you would like to look anyone up, perhaps an ancestor who served as an official, or someone you are already conducting research on, please give it a try: http://searchjsl.leecampbellgroup.blog/. Note that at present, it doesn’t work with Firefox.

All we ask is that if you have additional information on whoever you search for, please provide some details and your contact information in the form that shows up below the search results. We are particularly interested in years of birth and death, and names of ancestors.

We were inspired to do this because we had already begun fielding informal requests from people who asked us if we could find their ancestors, and wanted to make this more widely available.

Fu Siwei, a PhD student in computer science who is working with us on visualization of these and other historical databases, did this search facility as a side project. Lawrence Zhang, Bijia Chen, and other members of the research group provided a lot of feedback on various iterations.

Right now we’re only allowing for lookup of individuals. Following our standard practice, we will begin making the data publicly available, period by period. Our first release will be of late Guangxu and early Xuantong material, sometime in 2018.

Disclaimers and caveats

We’re still entering data. Right now our coverage of the early 20th century and late 19th century is the most complete. Coverage before the middle of the 19th century is pretty spotty.

It’s in Chinese, and for the search, you need to enter traditional Chinese, since that’s the way the original data is.

 

Review Article by Song and Campbell on Multi-generational Data for Social Science Research Published in Annual Review of Sociology

Xi Song and Cameron Campbell’s review article of multi-generational microdata for social science research published in the Annual Review of Sociology is now available as a preview, with publication scheduled for this summer:

http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-073014-112157

This comprehensive review introduces the major sources of multi-generational, longitudinal data that can be analyzed in the study of demographic and stratification processes. The emphasis is on data that are already available publicly, or by application. The review also surveys major research questions in the study of multi-generational processes, and the methods used for analyzing these data.

 

 

Computer Scientists Use CMGPD to Develop Visualization Tools for Genealogical Data

Qu Huamin (HKUST Computer Science) and collaborators have been using the China Multigenerational Panel Dataset-Liaoning to test and showcase visualization tools they have been developing for multidimensional genealogical data. Multidimensional refers to the fact that the genealogical data not only identify ancestors and kin, but describe additional characteristics. They recently published a paper describing these tools and the results of applying them to CMGPD in the IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/7909028/. While developing their tools and testing them with the CMGPD, they have consulted frequently with members of the Lee-Campbell Group not only about the data, but the needs of likely users. This collaboration between historians, social scientists, and computer scientists is an example of the sort of cross-disciplinary interaction and engagement that is common at HKUST.

The tools that Professor Qu and his collaborators are developing allow for the visualization of these characteristics, highlighting ancestors or kin with specified traits, while at the same time organizing the presentation as a traditional family tree. This allows for visualization of patterns within families, for example, whether certain outcomes are more apparent in specific family branches, or whether lineage experienced changes in specific time periods.

Cameron Campbell named as Changjiang Scholar at Central China Normal University

Cameron Campbell was named a Changjiang Scholar (长江学者) at Central China Normal University (华中师范大学) with the title of Visiting Professor of early modern and contemporary Chinese history (中国近现代史 讲座教授), 2016-2019. This is the highest academic honor conferred on individual scholars by the PRC Ministry of Education.  Only a limited number of overseas scholars are recognized every year, especially in the humanities and social sciences.

Campbell is the second member of the Lee-Campbell research group to be honored as a Changjiang Scholar.  From 2006-2009, James Z. Lee was also a Changjiang Scholar at Peking University in the department of Sociology.

Campbell and other members of the Lee-Campbell Group will work with CCNU to advance training and research in quantitative history, with an emphasis on the construction and analysis of big social science datasets.

See the official announcement from the Ministry of Education, and 2016 list of names. Campbell is listed under his Chinese name, 康文林.

Here is an announcement from Central China Normal University.

The Wikipedia entry for the Changjiang Scholar program provides a brief introduction to the program in English.

New Article by Hao Dong, James Lee, and Co-authors Published in Evolution and Human Biology

Hao Dong and James Lee, along with their co-authors Satomi Kurosu, Matteo Manfredini, and Wenshan Yang, published their article “Kin and birth order effects on male child mortality: three East Asian populations, 1716–1945” in the March 2017 issue of Evolution and Human Biology.  Using data from several historical East Asian populations, including Taiwan, the CMGPD-LN dataset for northeast China, and Japan, they examine how family context and birth order shape mortality chances in these specific populations and discuss the implications for our understanding of human behavior overall.

The paper is available via Open Access: http://www.ehbonline.org/article/S1090-5138(16)30067-8/fulltext

First publication on our China Government Employee Database – Qing (CGED-Q)

Beginning in late 2014, with support from the Hong Kong Research Grant Council, we have been constructing a database of Qing officialdom based on the quarterly editions of the 缙绅录. We recently published an article in 清史研究 introducing this project and presenting some preliminary results. We show that during the Qing there were three entry ways to the Road to Success: political appointment largely of bannermen, examination qualifications, and purchased offices. A PDF of the Chinese-language paper is available along with English and Chinese language abstracts.

Here’s the full reference:

任玉雪 (Yuxue REN), 陈必佳 (Bijia CHEN), 郝小雯 (Xiaowen Hao), 康文林 (Cameron Campbell), 李中清 (James Z. Lee). 2016. “清代缙绅录量化数据库与官僚群体研究  清史研究 (The Qing Jinshenlu Database: A New Source for the Study of Qing Officials)”  清史研究 (Qing History Research). 2016年11月第四期:61-77.

Lee-Campbell group at Social Science History Association meetings, November 17-20, 2016, Chicago, IL

Current and former members of our research group will be presenting a total of 11 papers at SSHA in November. Additionally, James Lee will be a panelist on a book session, and Shuang Chen will be a discussant.

See below for a complete list of our presentations. Names of group members are in bold.

Thursday, November 17: 12:30 PM-02:30 PM

Session: The city in economic history: The big picture (Room 6)

Xiaowen Hao. Risk Sharing with Chinese Characteristics: Partnership Liability of Local Business in Early Twentieth Century Shanghai.

Session: Family Ties in Household and Community (Room 4)

Xiangning Li. Household Hierarchy and Household Division in Northeast China, 1789-1909.

Hao Dong. Extended Family Norms, Post-Marital Co-Residence and Reproduction in East Asia, 1678-1945

Thursday, November 17: 02:45 PM-04:45 PM

Session: Religion in China (Room 16)

Li Ji. Social formation and identity construction of a Catholic village in nineteenth-century Manchuria.

Session: Early life conditions and later life outcomes (Room 5)

Emma Zang, Hui Zheng.  Does the Sex Ratio at Sexual Maturity Affect Men’s Later Life Mortality Risks? Evidence from Northeast China, 1789-1909.

Thursday, November 17: 05:00 PM-07:00 PM

Session: Women, Gender and Social Reproduction (Room 2)

Shuang Chen Discussant

Hao Dong, Satomi Kurosu. Missing Girls and Missing Boys: Differential Effects of Marital Residence, Co-resident Kin, and Household Wealth in Two Japanese Villages, 1716-1870

Friday, November 18: 04:30 PM-06:00 PM

Session: Author Meets Critics: Moring and Fauve-Chamoux, A Global History of Historical Demography: Half a Century of Interdisciplinarity (Room 3)

James Lee Panelist.

Saturday, November 19: 08:30 AM-10:30 AM

Session: Material antecedents to war and revolution (Room 13)

Matthew Noellert, Yingze Hu, Long Xing, and James Lee.  Collectivization and Inequality in Rural China: Evidence from Shanxi Province, 1946-1966.

Session: Marriage, Family and Partner Selection (Room 6)

Hao Dong. Marriages are Made in Heaven? The Influence of Extended Family in East Asia, 1688-1945

Saturday, November 19: 01:30 PM-03:30 PM

Session: The Demographics of Degrees (Room 15)

Veronica Wang, James Z. Lee, Chen Liang. Women’s Entry into Higher Education: China and U.S. in Comparison.

Sunday, November 20: 08:00 AM-10:00 AM

Session: Chinese State Culture and Bureaucracy in Global and Historical Perspective (Room 16)

Cameron Campbell, Bijia Chen, Chen Liang, Yuxue Ren, James Lee. Official Careers During the Qing (1644-1911): Evidence from the jinshenlu.

Sunday, November 20: 10:15 AM-12:15 PM

Session: Disease and Mortality (Room 4)

Shuang Chen. Patterns of Settlement and Migrants’ Long-term Mortality: A Case from Northeast China, 1866-1913