Library Trends

Abstract:

During the last decade in China, digital humanities (DH) has rapidly developed as a research area, attracting widening circles of inquiry and gaining prominence as an internationally recognized emerging discipline. In order to review the history and current status of DH scholarship in China, the research team conducted historical analysis and bibliometrics to reveal the conception and development of DH in China. The research findings indicate that the history of the evolution of DH in China may best be divided into two stages. In the preliminary period, DH had just been introduced into China, and emphasis was placed on the exploration of its connotation. Once the concept had been explored and research about DH had been widely accepted, DH in China gradually entered into the phase of rapid development, in which China witnessed a wide variety of DH inquiries and applications in the field of library and information science, linguistics, history, literature, art, cultural heritage preservation, and so on. DH in China is facing opportunities as well as challenges with regard to digital practice, such as DH infrastructure, interdisciplinary research, and DH education. As an essential part of DH communities in China, libraries are playing an important role in resource construction, space sharing, and training services, which may provide strong support to deal with opportunities and challenges in the future.