Our Next Forum

Cameron Campbell will introduce historical datasets for China that the Lee-Campbell Group have constructed, analyzed, and made publicly available over the last four decades. These datasets are all large, individual-level, and longitudinal, and amenable to the application of techniques from the digitalhumanities and social sciences to explore topics related to family, population, and society in China before the 20th century. The first of these were the China Multi-Generational Panel Datasets (CMGPD), which Campbell and Lee began releasing via ICSPR more than a decade ago. The CMGPD-Liaoning (LN) contains 1.5 million records of 250,000 individuals who lived in rural Liaoning between 1749 and 1909. The CMGPD-Shuangcheng (SC) contains 1.1 million records of 100,000 individuals who lived in Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang, between 1860 and 1911. These two datasets are not only suitable for the study of demographic behavior and social mobility, but other topics such as ethnic identification, naming practices, and intermarriage. More recently, the Lee-Campbell Group has also begun to release excerpts from the China Government Employee Dataset-Qing (CGED-Q), which records career histories for Qing civil and military officials between 1760 and 1911. Thus far, data for 1850-1864 and 1900-1912 have been released, and 18th century data is scheduled for release in 2024. Campbell will provide examples of published studies that showcase the range of topics that can be investigated with these data, and the diversity of methods that can be applied in their analysis. Campbell will also summarize other ongoing dataset construction projects by the Lee-Campbell Group and plans for the future public release of such data.