Project Overview
The Chinese Factory Project is a data analytics and digital history project designed to collect, analyze, and publicize archival and quantitative data sources on the history of industrial factories in twentieth-century China. It utilizes the digital medium to document important historical episodes of the Chinese industrial factories’ emergence and transformation in the past hundred years and analyze their economic, social, and ecological consequences. The project’s goal is to create: 1) digitization of factory archives, 2) data visualization representing the shifting geographical distribution of Chinese factories and industry, and 3) a large-scale factory database drawing on original archives and gazetteers and exploring the ways factories shaped the path of China’s economic transition. The Chinese Factory Project, the first of its kind, will offer scholars and students digital tools and systematic datasets to study China’s economic and industrial history.
Project Highlights
Digital Archives
The project houses the Baojin Company Archive, one of the most complete collections about Chinese industrial factories.
Factory Database
The project team is developing the first large-scale database drawing on original data on factory production, geospatial, and ecological information.
Teaching Resources
This project also provides a collection of sample syllabi and other teaching materials in relation to courses on China’s business, economy, and industry.
