‘Happiness’ in China: Tracing Conceptual Shifts from the Digital Humanities Perspective
中国人的“幸福”观——数字人文视域下的概念变迁追踪

Friday 31st January 2025
13:00-14:00 
Auditorium, The McClay Library

Speaker:
Tong Yan (闫潼) is a visiting PhD student from Shanghai International Studies University to School of Arts, English and Language, QUB. She is interested in corpus linguistics and digital humanities.

Outline:
What is 幸福 (xìngfú), often translated as “happiness”, despite the term encompassing distinct conceptual scopes in Chinese and English cultures? Within the Chinese context, perceptions of 幸福 vary significantly across generations, with individuals conceptualising it differently based on their cultural, social, and historical experiences. This diversity reflects the dynamic nature of the term, shaped by evolving societal values and personal aspirations.

This talk examines the evolving concept of 幸福 (happiness) in China through the lens of digital humanities, an interdisciplinary field that integrates traditional humanities scholarship with digital technologies, data analysis, and computational methods. Digital humanities expands and transforms research in disciplines such as history, linguistics, and cultural studies by leveraging innovative digital tools and techniques. 

The talk demonstrates how digital humanities methodologies can be applied to trace the semantic evolution of ‘happiness’ in China from 1949 to 2022. It will uncover the longitudinal trends of this evolution, shedding light on the dynamic interplay between shifts in conceptual understanding and broader social structures.