During the summer of 2025, I worked with Professor Seungjoo Yoon in History on a project investigating the circulation of Enlightenment ideas among the ruling elite of the late Qing Dynasty. The late Qing period was a time when traditional Chinese ideas intersected and experienced confluence with Western Enlightenment ideas, leading to various reforms and revolutions. The research examined not only the intellectual debates preserved in memorials, letters, and telegrams, but also the physical network through which these ideas were transmitted in Beijing and beyond. Thus, by integrating archival research with spatial analysis of the city’s back alleyways (hutongs), we hope to illuminate the understanding of both the textual and the spatial aspects of the late Qing communication networks.
The first project I worked on was archival research that aimed at helping Professor Yoon update his bibliography and compile archival materials regarding his book project. Working remotely in China, I was able to conduct the research in the First Historical Archives of China, the most important archive for Qing dynasty researchers, and several other archives, including the National Library of China, under Professor Yoon’s guidance. My major task was to transcribe memorials during the late Qing period that discussed Enlightenment ideas. This involved reading handwritten classical Chinese articles either from ruling elites such as Yu Shimei, Shi Lvjin, and Wang Buying, or that referenced important Enlightenment concepts, including election, participation, sovereignty, etc. Besides transcribing these memorials, I also transcribed and photocopied newly published diaries and other private works by late Qing intellectuals that contain valuable clues to reimagining the communication network of that period. I reported to Professor Yoon weekly on the new discoveries and progress I had made while he provided me with further clues in the archives. During this process, I also became familiar with a particular type of obstacle that is often faced by historians, the access issue to certain materials. Due to the high-level sensitivity of the documents stored at the First Historical Archives, we have limited access to certain materials, often forcing us to redirect our targets.
My second task was to locate the precise locations of key sites in the late Qing communication network. Drawing on old maps, travel guides, newspaper articles, as well as existing scholarly work such as Donghua Tuzhi, I located the headquarters of newspaper companies, compatriot lodges, residences of ruling elites, and other places between the year of 1880 and 1920. After locating the possible locations, I went into hutongs, the Beijing term for back alleyways, to photograph the currently existing buildings on these lands. Finally, I created indexed maps that displayed these locations across different districts. I learned how to use ArcGIS and created maps using old hutong maps from the late 19th and early 20th century. The major obstacles I faced in conducting this research were the changes in modern urban development and the lack of sufficient sources. The city of Beijing experienced generations of urban transformations in the past hundred years, making the original buildings untraceable, a challenge compounded by the fact that most surviving texts provide only the relative locations of these sites on certain hutongs, making it even harder to identify.
Thanks to this opportunity supported by the SRP program, I have acquired foundational skills in conducting archival research and gained proficiency with ArcGIS. Beyond these abilities, I deepened my understanding of the significance of social networks in Beijing at the turn of the century and gained familiarity with key figures and ideas of that period. This summer, with Professor Yoon’s guidance and the Humanities Center’s support, I was able to get a glimpse of this new understanding of the late Qing communication network that combined both epistolary and spatial transmissions.