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Project Description
The full title for this project is Mapping Taipei from the colonial period through modern times: a digital representation of the shifting cityscape in Chu T’ien-hsin’s novella The Old Capital. The idea for this mapping project originated from St. Olf’s Modern Chinese Literature and Society course, which uses Chu T’ien-hsin’s novella The Old Capital (1997) as one of the texts. 
The author’s unique perspective, as a second-generation mainland émigré to Taiwan, and her nostalgia for a bygone Japanese rule reveal various layers of memories of Taipei. The English translation of this novella (2007) has a map of old Taipei and some notes on the place names, but the map and notes do not provide details that allow multi-layered understanding and criticism of the novella. Furthermore, old and new maps of Taipei by Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, and Chinese have been collected and published in recent years. Meanwhile, the landmarks of Taipei keep changing and need further identification and documentation.
With the support of a Magnus the Good Award prior to the DHH seed grant, Hsiang-Lin Shih and student researcher Leah Suffern travelled to Taipei to revisit the places mentioned in The Old Capital and collect the photos, audio recordings of street sounds, and video interviews which have become part of the Mapping Taipei project. This media has been combined with new and historical maps on a website providing curated reading routes showing places and routes from the novella, placing the events of the novella within historical and environmental context. These interactive materials are used by students studying the novella and the broader topic of modern Chinese literature and society.
In addition, students in appropriate courses create their own interpretive routes through old Taipei using ESRI Story Maps. The student-created routes are also featured on the website.
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