Utilizing Digital Humanities Methodologies for the Empirical Study of Commonality within Chinese Culture

（1. School of Marxism， Sichuan University， Chengdu， 610065， Sichuan，China;

2. School of Computer Science and Engineering，Southwest Minzu University， Chengdu， 610225， Sichuan， China）

JOURNAL OF ETHNOLOGY， VOL. 15， NO.01， 60-64， 2024 （CN51-1731/C， in Chinese）

DOI：10.3969/j.issn.1674-9391.2024.01.007

Abstract：

Forging a strong sense of community consciousness for the Chinese nation is viewed as a" main task of ethnic work in the New Era of China. However， current research on this topic" notably lacks comprehensive quantitative empirical inquiry." While existing empirical research on commonality within Chinese culture" partially addresses this lacuna， there are still new challenges in the" advent" of cultural digitization. To deal with this gap，" this paper aims to leverage the advantages" offered by digital humanities in acquiring abundant evidence， conducting comparative analyses of material， and presenting results，" breaking through disciplinary boundaries，" and synergizing the rich tapestry of high Chinese culture with emerging information technology. The goal is" trying to establish a logical framework" within the field of digital humanities" tailored for empirical research on the common cultural threads within Chinese society. In this framework， based on" a" bidirectional driving mechanism between traditional methods of forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation and information technologies， the application of" said technologies" in empirical research on Chinese cultural commonality" can be divided into three progressive layers： The" data layer， the algorithm" layer， and the application layer.

This bidirectional driving mechanism refers to" conventional research methods and their outcomes on the topic of “Forging”， seeking to provide theoretical foundations， problem identification，" clue guidance， and results interpretation for the application of information" technologies. Conversely， these technologies and their applications potentially could furnish quantitative empirical tools for traditional research methods" that would aim to support" forging a strong sense of community consciousness for the Chinese nation. The data layer should be guided by the empirical research" imperatives of identifying Chinese cultural commonality in real space， and should collect and organize data containing Chinese cultural commonality in the digital space by determining data categories， data collection， and data preprocessing. After which the algorithm layer would transform the discovered" elements of Chinese cultural commonality into computable problems through problem abstraction， algorithm calculation， and knowledge discovery via computational analysis. Through this， the application layer would visualize" elements of Chinese cultural commonality through a multifaceted lens， incorporating dimensions of ethnicity， time， and space， serving empirical research on forging a strong sense of community consciousness for the Chinese nation， echoing and closing the loop with the problem orientation of the data layer.

Within this theoretical framework delineated above， this paper selects three categories of cultural carriers widely presented in text， image， and audio modalities—Chinese literature， Chinese costumes， and Chinese music—as its research content， further exploring the practical application of digital humanities methodologies for empirical research on Chinese cultural commonality. This would include the construction of cultural carrier datasets， the exploration of elements of Chinese cultural commonality， and the construction of platforms tailored for the presentation and application of" identified" elements of Chinese cultural commonality. This paper seeks to provide a novel research paradigm for forging a strong sense of community consciousness for the Chinese nation， particularly emphasizing the potential application of information technology in cultural research domains. In conclusion， this paper serves as a cogent response to the new challenges of empirical research on Chinese cultural commonality in the context of cultural digitization. Moreover， it underscores the pivotal role of information technology in consolidating Chinas cultural security and bolstering its discursive influence on" forging a strong sense of community consciousness for the Chinese nation.

Key Words：

forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation; Chinese culture; digital humanities; information technology