Billy K.L. So

Prosperity, region, and institutions in maritime China : the south Fukien pattern, 946-1368

Prosperity signifies success in economic performance. Economic performance always takes place in a spatial context. And institutions matter in economic performance. These three interwoven themes underlie this inquiry into the regional economy of southern Fukien province during the Sung and Yuan dynasties, when the area was one of the most prosperous regions in China. Through a meticulous reading of the sources, the author seeks to understand the meaning of prosperity in the premodern Chinese context and argues that we have to understand economic performance as a process occurring in space and influenced by institutions, which affect economic actors particularly through the means of transaction costs.

Addressing quality issues of historical GIS data: an example of Republican Beijing

This article addresses several issues related to historical GIS data using a project studying the social culture of Republican Beijing as an illustration. For large-scale historical GIS projects, certain data layers or themes are fundamental to and provide the context for various types of investigation. We suggested that these data may be regarded as framework data, similar to the concept of the core dataset identified in the US National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) framework, but in a GIS project context. Due to various reasons, most historical GIS data always invite concerns about their quality. We discussed how typical spatial data quality concepts are partially applicable to historical GIS data. We also highlighted the data quality aspects that are more significant to historical than contemporary GIS data. Compiling high-quality historical GIS data is challenging. We used the data layer of temple locations as an example to illustrate the process of using a set of principles to resolve the inconsistencies of data from multiple sources to deal with location accuracy and data completeness problems. Two common but related quality concerns of historical GIS data are their relatively low spatial resolution and imprecise locations. The original population dataset of Republican Beijing suffers from these two issues. Using ancillary data, more precise population locations and population distribution at a higher resolution were estimated. Compilation of historical GIS data requires fusing data of different sources in order to enhance the quality of the data.

GIS in urban cultural studies: reflections from the project on Republican Beijing

This is a reflective report of our historical GIS project on Beijings urban culture during a culturally transitional and transformative period when the city operated not under direct political and ideological control by a supreme sovereign authority as the capital of an empire or an effectively unified nation-state. It is between the fall of the imperial order and before the Japanese occupation, 12 years before the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China. In this article, we will report what the project is about but we also have an underlying concern of what more GIS can tell us about historical Beijing as a city. This question will be addressed by drawing from the experience of our project. The article discusses the benefits gained and difficulties we encountered and our reflections upon a number of more fundamental theoretical issues. The scholarship contexts pertaining to the application of historical GIS to modern Chinese history and urban history are provided, against which a case of legal cultural development, especially that of the newly emergent legal profession, is discussed to illustrate in a spatial perspective the complex interplay between the legal heritage and transplants in Republican Beijing.

New Narratives of Urban Space in Republican Chinese Cities

New Narratives of Urban Space in Republican Chinese Cities offers nine empirical studies to examine the social, legal and governance dimensions of the great urban transformation in Republican China pertaining to the cultural realm of the urban space.