A Digital Humanities Study of Chen Duxiu: Founder of the Chinese Communist Party
Anne S. Chao, School of Humanities, Rice University, Houston, Texas
Email: [email protected]
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•  Leader of the New Culture Movement, ca.
1915-1923
•  Leader of the Chinese literary revolution
•  Publisher of the influential New Youth magazine
Hailed as the “general marshal” by Mao
Zedong
Thought Analysis via Text Mining
Data
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Chen Duxiu zhuzuo xuanbian published in 2009
6 volumes, 890 writings, 1,381,183 Chinese characters
Genres: essays, correspondences, poems, etc.
Topics: politics, culture, education, philosophy, etc.
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Goal
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How did Chen’s conception of “umbrella words” change over
the course of his life?
“Citizen,” “Freedom,” “Chinese person”
Methodology
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Search for the umbrella words through all of his writings
•  High frequency ≠ Importance
•  Zipf’s law:
Table of Umbrella Words
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Bi.
Tri.
Quadri.
主義 (Ideology)
中國 (China)
國民 (Citizen)
革命 (Revolution)
階級 (Class)
政府 (Government)
社會 (Society)
政治 (Politics)
運動 (Movement)
帝國 (Empire)
國家 (Nation)
軍閥 (Warlord)
民族 (Race)
資本 (Capital)
民主 (Democracy)
自由 (Freedom)
民眾 (Masses)
工人 (Proletariat)
經濟 (Economy)
(Common
property)
國民黨 (Guomindang)
中國人 (Chinese
person)
(Communist
Party)
殖民地 (Colony)
資本家 (Capitalist)
馬克思 (Marx)
革命黨 (Revolutionary
party)
帝國主義
(Imperialism)
Penta.
帝國主義者
(Imperialist)
無政府主義
(Bourgeoisie)
(Anarchism)
資本主義
國民黨政府
(Capitalism)
(Guomindang
社會主義 (Socialism) government)
中國國民黨 (Chinese
(Proletariat)
Nationalist party, aka
國民會議 (National
Guomindang)
conference)
不平等條約 (Unequal
國民政府 (Nationalist treaties)
government)
反帝國主義 (Anti國民革命 (Nationalist imperialism)
revolution)
(Petit民主主義
bourgeoisie)
(Democracy)
國民黨右派 (Right國家主義
wing Guomindang)
(Nationalism)
我們中國人 (We
革命運動
Chinese people)
(Revolutionary
movement)
Social Network Visualizations
Data
Membership latent matrix
Network Network
A
B
Citizen
Freedom
Chinese
person
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Self-awareness (0.91)
Welfare (0.91)
Patriotism (0.89)
Imperialism (0.68)
Nation (0.65)
Anarchy (0.93)
Law (0.90)
Contract (0.90)
Individual (0.87)
Government (0.87)
Evolutionary (0.86)
Of freedom
(0.66)
China (0.99)
Sovereignty (0.96)
Fate (0.96)
Strengthen (0.93)
Our nation (0.92)
Death of a nation (0.86)
China (0.79)
Life of a person
(0.60)
Property of a nation
(0.60)
China (0.66)
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Outer square: each organization
Central star: Chen Duxiu
Inner circle: each person
Radius: 21 - # of shared organizations
Inscribed angle: starting time
Line between square and circle:
membership
•  Red: Chen’s Anhui co-provincials
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Person 2
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1
Person 415
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Marxist.Journals
Shanghai.Anhui.Reform
Chen’s Anhui bond
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Anhui.Determination
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XQN
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Chen Duxiu
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Zheng Zancheng
Wu Shouyi
Pan Zanhua
Li Guangjiong
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Bo Wenwei
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Liu Wendian
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Citizen.Daily
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Anhui.Patriotic
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Patriotic.Study
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Jiayin
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China.Education
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CCP.Shanghai.Cell
•  6 of 10 closest friends are from Anhui
•  The bond became stronger in his
later life
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Beijing.Anhui.Reform
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ASB
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Youth.Society
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Shanghai.Assassination
Anhui.P..School
Asia.Friendship
All China (0.73)
to the Marxist ideal of proletarian dictatorship. But before he died he praised the
freedom that resulted in a rich European cultural tradition.
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Tokyo.Determination
Of freedom
(0.77)
Summary: Chen’s nationalism changed from a Western ideal of individual freedom
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Plot Chen’s social networks
1922-1928 1929-1942
Guomingdang
Conference
(0.74)
(0.81)
Citizen of (0.70) Is not only
(0.64)
Person 1
Methodology
Table of Companion Words
Political condition
(0.63)
Incapable of being
established (0.60)
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How to visualize the tightly knit Anhui bond throughout Chen’s life?
What political persuasion did the members of Chen’s networks eventually
follow?
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People (1.00)
Welfare (0.94)
Patriotism (0.93)
Right or power (0.93)
Nation (0.92)
Self-awareness (0.92)
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Study.of.Socialism
•  Companion words in different periods
•  Pearson’s correlation coefficient:
1915-1921
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Anhui.Provisional.Gvnt.
Interpret the umbrella words in a dynamic way
1897-1914
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Goals
MZPL
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Network
U
Chen
•  Chen Duxiu and 415 members from 13 provinces
•  21 most influential networks in Chen’s life
Associated personal data: hometown, politics, etc.
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Cultural iconoclast:
Alternative methodology
New perspective
Large datasets
Efficient data processing
Objective quantification
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•  Founder of the Chinese Communist Party, 1920
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His life reflected the historical changes of
th
early 20 century China
His actions precipitated China’s turn to
communism
His writings led to a cultural movement in
China
His call for scientific thinking and democracy
influenced generations of Chinese
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Political radical
Why Digital Humanities?
Why Study Chen Duxiu?
…
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Who is Chen Duxiu (1879-1942)?
Yue.Fei
1900−1902
1903−1907
1908−1918
1919−1926
Plot Chen’s political path
•  Level: each period
•  Circle: political persuasion
•  Circle size: # of people with the
same political persuasion
•  Line: political path
•  Line width: # of people with the
same political path
•  Red: Chen’s political path
Political path
•  Chen chose the most radical path
Summary: In his 21 networks Chen made radical choices that led to the founding
of the Chinese Communist Party. While the networks crossed provincial and
geographical lines, Chen’s Anhui co-provincials played a lasting and important role.