(See English below)
Wir laden herzlich zum ersten CrossAsia Talk im neuen Jahr ein. Prof. Dr. Hermann Kreutzmann (FU Berlin) wird am Donnerstag, den 29.01.2026, ab 18 Uhr zum Thema “Passages to Kashgar and Yarkand – 19th century cross-mountain connections and relations” sprechen. Der Vortrag wird die europäischen Expeditionen und geopolitischen Verflechtungen entlang der südlichen Seidenstraße im 19. Jahrhundert beleuchten. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei einerseits die Bemühungen von Forschern, die Handelsstädte Kashgar und Yarkand zu erreichen, andererseits die Rivalität der Kolonialmächte um Einfluss und wirtschaftliche Vorteile in Zentralasien zu jener Zeit.
The term ‘Silk Road’ first appeared in Carl Ritter’s ‘Geography of Asia’ in 1838 and was further developed and popularised by Friedrich Freiherr von Richthofen in 1877. Subsequently, geographical exploration and the search for economic advantages went hand in hand with imperial ambitions as interest increasingly focused on the Celestial Mountains and oases of the southern Silk Road. The Tianshan Mountains and Kashgar became coveted destinations for European explorers who were denied access to forbidden cities by local potentates. The prominent Berlin geographers Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter motivated young scholars such as the Schlagintweit brothers to explore the roads to Kashgar and Yarkand. In addition, Pyotr Semenov participated in the Berlin nestors-led initiative to expand geographical knowledge of South and Central Asia and support its manifestation in topographical maps.
The talk focuses on efforts to reach Kashgar and Yarkand in the second half of the 19th century. The competition between Adolph Schlagintweit and Chokan Valikhanov, the role of indigenous intermediaries in gathering knowledge, and the desire to tap into the potential of valuable local commodities have shaped our perception of the southern Silk Roads. Kashgar and Yarkand were hubs for trade between Afghanistan, Semirechia, Kashmir, and British India. The Xinjiang Triangle represents a less significant case within the colonial opium regime, but with significant local impact on consumers, trade and profit. The exchange corridors were characterised by long-distance routes connecting rival empires, represented by Chinese administrative officials, British and Russian consuls, with Kashgar and Yarkand. The archival material presented, spanning a century from the 1850s, was recorded by European representatives on site and provides insights into the external perception of these oases on the Silk Road. Comparisons of favourable routes led to dreams of infrastructure projects to cross the Karakorum Mountains and Kunlun Shan, which were realised in the second half of the 20th century.
Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch. Bei Fragen kontaktieren Sie uns unter: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
Der Vortrag wird via Webex gestreamt und aufgezeichnet*. Sie können am Vortrag über Ihren Browser ohne Installation einer Software teilnehmen. Klicken Sie dazu unten auf „Zum Vortrag“, folgen dem Link „Über Browser teilnehmen“ und geben Ihren Namen ein.
Alle bislang angekündigten Vorträge finden Sie hier. Die weiteren Termine kündigen wir in unserem Blog und auf unserem X-Account, Mastodon und BlueSky an.
—
We cordially invite you to the first CrossAsia Talk of the new year. Prof. Dr. Hermann Kreutzmann (Freie Universität Berlin) will speak on Thursday, January 29, 2026, at 6 p.m. on the topic “Passages to Kashgar and Yarkand – 19th-Century Cross-Mountain Connections and Relations.”
The lecture will explore European expeditions and geopolitical entanglements along the southern Silk Road in the 19th century. It will focus on the efforts of researchers to reach the trading cities of Kashgar and Yarkand, as well as on the rivalry among colonial powers for influence and economic advantage in Central Asia at that time.
The term ‘Silk Road’ first appeared in Carl Ritter’s ‘Geography of Asia’ in 1838 and was further developed and popularised by Friedrich Freiherr von Richthofen in 1877. Subsequently, geographical exploration and the search for economic advantages went hand in hand with imperial ambitions as interest increasingly focused on the Celestial Mountains and oases of the southern Silk Road. The Tianshan Mountains and Kashgar became coveted destinations for European explorers who were denied access to forbidden cities by local potentates. The prominent Berlin geographers Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter motivated young scholars such as the Schlagintweit brothers to explore the roads to Kashgar and Yarkand. In addition, Pyotr Semenov participated in the Berlin nestors-led initiative to expand geographical knowledge of South and Central Asia and support its manifestation in topographical maps.
The talk focuses on efforts to reach Kashgar and Yarkand in the second half of the 19th century. The competition between Adolph Schlagintweit and Chokan Valikhanov, the role of indigenous intermediaries in gathering knowledge, and the desire to tap into the potential of valuable local commodities have shaped our perception of the southern Silk Roads. Kashgar and Yarkand were hubs for trade between Afghanistan, Semirechia, Kashmir, and British India. The Xinjiang Triangle represents a less significant case within the colonial opium regime, but with significant local impact on consumers, trade and profit. The exchange corridors were characterised by long-distance routes connecting rival empires, represented by Chinese administrative officials, British and Russian consuls, with Kashgar and Yarkand. The archival material presented, spanning a century from the 1850s, was recorded by European representatives on site and provides insights into the external perception of these oases on the Silk Road. Comparisons of favourable routes led to dreams of infrastructure projects to cross the Karakorum Mountains and Kunlun Shan, which were realised in the second half of the 20th century.
The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
The lecture will be streamed and recorded via Webex*. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser” (“über Browser teilnehmen”), and enter your name.
You can find all previously announced lectures here. We will announce further dates in our blog and on X, Mastodon and BlueSky.
Caption for Mirza’s exploration map:
The ‘Map of the route from Badakhshan across the Pamir-Steppe to Kashgar with the southern branch of the Upper Oxus from the survey made by the Mirza in 1868-69’ accompanied a paper read at the Royal Geographical Society on April 24, 1871 by Thomas Montgomerie and was published in the society’s journal in the same year. It shows Mirza Shuja’s explorations along his route from Badakhshan to Shahidulla via Kashgar.
Source: Thomas George Montgomerie 1871: Report of ‘The Mirza’s’ Exploration from Caubul to Kashgar’ in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 41, page 132 opposite.
Source: Reproduced in Pamirian Crossroads (2015: 213); Courtesy Pamir Archive Collection
*Mit Ihrer Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung räumen Sie der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und ihren nachgeordneten Einrichtungen kostenlos alle Nutzungsrechte an den Bildern/Videos ein, die während der Veranstaltung von Ihnen angefertigt wurden. Dies schließt auch die kommerzielle Nutzung ein. Diese Einverständniserklärung gilt räumlich und zeitlich unbeschränkt und für die Nutzung in allen Medien, sowohl für analoge als auch für digitale Verwendungen. Sie umfasst auch die Bildbearbeitung sowie die Verwendung der Bilder für Montagen. / By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.
CrossAsia Talks: Hermann Kreutzmann 29.01.2026
/in Aktuelles, Veranstaltungen, Vortragsreihe "CrossAsia Talks"/by CrossAsia(See English below)
Wir laden herzlich zum ersten CrossAsia Talk im neuen Jahr ein. Prof. Dr. Hermann Kreutzmann (FU Berlin) wird am Donnerstag, den 29.01.2026, ab 18 Uhr zum Thema “Passages to Kashgar and Yarkand – 19th century cross-mountain connections and relations” sprechen. Der Vortrag wird die europäischen Expeditionen und geopolitischen Verflechtungen entlang der südlichen Seidenstraße im 19. Jahrhundert beleuchten. Im Mittelpunkt stehen dabei einerseits die Bemühungen von Forschern, die Handelsstädte Kashgar und Yarkand zu erreichen, andererseits die Rivalität der Kolonialmächte um Einfluss und wirtschaftliche Vorteile in Zentralasien zu jener Zeit.
The term ‘Silk Road’ first appeared in Carl Ritter’s ‘Geography of Asia’ in 1838 and was further developed and popularised by Friedrich Freiherr von Richthofen in 1877. Subsequently, geographical exploration and the search for economic advantages went hand in hand with imperial ambitions as interest increasingly focused on the Celestial Mountains and oases of the southern Silk Road. The Tianshan Mountains and Kashgar became coveted destinations for European explorers who were denied access to forbidden cities by local potentates. The prominent Berlin geographers Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter motivated young scholars such as the Schlagintweit brothers to explore the roads to Kashgar and Yarkand. In addition, Pyotr Semenov participated in the Berlin nestors-led initiative to expand geographical knowledge of South and Central Asia and support its manifestation in topographical maps.
The talk focuses on efforts to reach Kashgar and Yarkand in the second half of the 19th century. The competition between Adolph Schlagintweit and Chokan Valikhanov, the role of indigenous intermediaries in gathering knowledge, and the desire to tap into the potential of valuable local commodities have shaped our perception of the southern Silk Roads. Kashgar and Yarkand were hubs for trade between Afghanistan, Semirechia, Kashmir, and British India. The Xinjiang Triangle represents a less significant case within the colonial opium regime, but with significant local impact on consumers, trade and profit. The exchange corridors were characterised by long-distance routes connecting rival empires, represented by Chinese administrative officials, British and Russian consuls, with Kashgar and Yarkand. The archival material presented, spanning a century from the 1850s, was recorded by European representatives on site and provides insights into the external perception of these oases on the Silk Road. Comparisons of favourable routes led to dreams of infrastructure projects to cross the Karakorum Mountains and Kunlun Shan, which were realised in the second half of the 20th century.
Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch. Bei Fragen kontaktieren Sie uns unter: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
Der Vortrag wird via Webex gestreamt und aufgezeichnet*. Sie können am Vortrag über Ihren Browser ohne Installation einer Software teilnehmen. Klicken Sie dazu unten auf „Zum Vortrag“, folgen dem Link „Über Browser teilnehmen“ und geben Ihren Namen ein.
Alle bislang angekündigten Vorträge finden Sie hier. Die weiteren Termine kündigen wir in unserem Blog und auf unserem X-Account, Mastodon und BlueSky an.
—
We cordially invite you to the first CrossAsia Talk of the new year. Prof. Dr. Hermann Kreutzmann (Freie Universität Berlin) will speak on Thursday, January 29, 2026, at 6 p.m. on the topic “Passages to Kashgar and Yarkand – 19th-Century Cross-Mountain Connections and Relations.”
The lecture will explore European expeditions and geopolitical entanglements along the southern Silk Road in the 19th century. It will focus on the efforts of researchers to reach the trading cities of Kashgar and Yarkand, as well as on the rivalry among colonial powers for influence and economic advantage in Central Asia at that time.
The term ‘Silk Road’ first appeared in Carl Ritter’s ‘Geography of Asia’ in 1838 and was further developed and popularised by Friedrich Freiherr von Richthofen in 1877. Subsequently, geographical exploration and the search for economic advantages went hand in hand with imperial ambitions as interest increasingly focused on the Celestial Mountains and oases of the southern Silk Road. The Tianshan Mountains and Kashgar became coveted destinations for European explorers who were denied access to forbidden cities by local potentates. The prominent Berlin geographers Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Ritter motivated young scholars such as the Schlagintweit brothers to explore the roads to Kashgar and Yarkand. In addition, Pyotr Semenov participated in the Berlin nestors-led initiative to expand geographical knowledge of South and Central Asia and support its manifestation in topographical maps.
The talk focuses on efforts to reach Kashgar and Yarkand in the second half of the 19th century. The competition between Adolph Schlagintweit and Chokan Valikhanov, the role of indigenous intermediaries in gathering knowledge, and the desire to tap into the potential of valuable local commodities have shaped our perception of the southern Silk Roads. Kashgar and Yarkand were hubs for trade between Afghanistan, Semirechia, Kashmir, and British India. The Xinjiang Triangle represents a less significant case within the colonial opium regime, but with significant local impact on consumers, trade and profit. The exchange corridors were characterised by long-distance routes connecting rival empires, represented by Chinese administrative officials, British and Russian consuls, with Kashgar and Yarkand. The archival material presented, spanning a century from the 1850s, was recorded by European representatives on site and provides insights into the external perception of these oases on the Silk Road. Comparisons of favourable routes led to dreams of infrastructure projects to cross the Karakorum Mountains and Kunlun Shan, which were realised in the second half of the 20th century.
The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
The lecture will be streamed and recorded via Webex*. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser” (“über Browser teilnehmen”), and enter your name.
You can find all previously announced lectures here. We will announce further dates in our blog and on X, Mastodon and BlueSky.
Caption for Mirza’s exploration map:
The ‘Map of the route from Badakhshan across the Pamir-Steppe to Kashgar with the southern branch of the Upper Oxus from the survey made by the Mirza in 1868-69’ accompanied a paper read at the Royal Geographical Society on April 24, 1871 by Thomas Montgomerie and was published in the society’s journal in the same year. It shows Mirza Shuja’s explorations along his route from Badakhshan to Shahidulla via Kashgar.
Source: Thomas George Montgomerie 1871: Report of ‘The Mirza’s’ Exploration from Caubul to Kashgar’ in Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London 41, page 132 opposite.
Source: Reproduced in Pamirian Crossroads (2015: 213); Courtesy Pamir Archive Collection
*Mit Ihrer Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung räumen Sie der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und ihren nachgeordneten Einrichtungen kostenlos alle Nutzungsrechte an den Bildern/Videos ein, die während der Veranstaltung von Ihnen angefertigt wurden. Dies schließt auch die kommerzielle Nutzung ein. Diese Einverständniserklärung gilt räumlich und zeitlich unbeschränkt und für die Nutzung in allen Medien, sowohl für analoge als auch für digitale Verwendungen. Sie umfasst auch die Bildbearbeitung sowie die Verwendung der Bilder für Montagen. / By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.
CrossAsia DH Lunchtalks – AI for the Humanities: A Case of Manchu OCR
/in Aktuelles, Forschungsdaten, OCR, Veranstaltungen/by CrossAsiaDear users,
On February 3rd at 12:30 pm (CET), we are pleased to host the first session of the CrossAsia DH Lunchtalks 2026. The talk will be given by Dr. Yan Hon Michael Chung and is titled “AI for the Humanities: A Case of Manchu OCR.” Dr. Chung will introduce the development pipeline for creating an OCR model for Manchu-language documents and share his reflections on applying AI to humanities research.
Manchu, today an endangered language, was once the official language of China’s last imperial dynasty, the Qing (1644–1911). The Qing state produced an enormous corpus of Manchu-language documents, many of which have been digitized and made publicly available by archives and libraries worldwide. Despite this abundance of scanned materials, there is still no reliable, publicly accessible optical character recognition (OCR) system for Manchu, posing a major bottleneck for historical research.
This presentation introduces an end-to-end Manchu OCR system developed by fine-tuning a vision–language model (VLM), and uses it as a case study to reflect on the broader challenges of applying AI to humanities research. It identifies three structural constraints that distinguish humanities-oriented AI development from commercial or industrial settings: the scarcity of labeled training data, the unusually high accuracy requirements demanded by scholarly research, and the limited computational resources available to most humanities scholars.
To address these constraints, the project adopts a small-model, data-centric strategy. The OCR model is trained using a combination of large-scale synthetic data and carefully curated historical samples. Specifically, a LLaMA-3.2-11B Vision model is fine-tuned using approximately 60,000 synthetic Manchu images alongside 20,000 Manchu word images extracted from real Qing-era documents. The resulting model achieves up to 96% accuracy on unseen, real-world scanned Manchu sources.
The OCR pipeline is further enhanced through a custom Manchu word detection and segmentation model, combined with a post-processing large language model for typographical correction. Together, these components form a complete, practical Manchu OCR system built with state-of-the-art vision–language and language models. Beyond presenting technical results, this presentation argues that carefully constrained, accuracy-driven AI systems offer a viable and sustainable path for AI research in the humanities.
About the speaker:
Dr. Michael Chung is an Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Chung received his PhD in history from Emory University in 2025, and his BA and MPhil from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012 and 2016 respectively. Chung’s research centers on the early Qing dynasty, with a focus on the transfer of European artillery technology and the formation of the Hanjun Eight Banners. As a digital humanist, Chung is currently developing a Manchu OCR system based on a fine-tuned vision-language model.
The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us at ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
The lecture will be streamed and recorded via Webex. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser,” and enter your name.
You can find the full programm of CrossAsia DH Lunchtalks 2026 here. Further talks will also be announced on our blog as well as on Mastodon and BlueSky.
Yours,
CrossAsia Team
CrossAsia DH Lunchtalks Launching in February 2026
/in Aktuelles, Forschungsdaten, OCR, Veranstaltungen/by CrossAsiaDear colleagues,
We are delighted to announce that the CrossAsia DH Lunchtalks will return in February 2026.
Originally launched between winter 2023 and spring 2024, the first DH Lunchtalk Series was warmly received by our community. Building on this success, the CrossAsia team and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) went on to co-host the international conference “Charting the European D-SEA: Digital Scholarship in East Asian Studies” in Berlin from 8–12 July 2024, bringing together around 120 participants from 19 countries and regions (read more).
In light of this strong engagement and our ongoing commitment to digital scholarship, we are pleased to relaunch the Lunchtalks as an online forum where scholars can share project updates, present new tools and methods, offer methodological insights, and showcase innovative research in Digital Asian Studies.
Between February and June 2026, the DH Lunchtalks will take place monthly. While the 2023–2024 season focused primarily on training in digital tools and platforms, the upcoming series will feature 60-minute lunchtime talks (including Q&A) by distinguished speakers presenting their latest digital research projects. The currently confirmed programme is as follows:
Prof. Michael Yan Hon CHUNG (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology)
AI for Endangered Documentary Archives: Manchu OCR
Dr. Franz Xaver Erhard (Leipzig University)
Getting the Lines Right: Layout Analysis as the Critical First Step for Tibetan Newspaper HTR
Prof. ZHAN Beibei (Hunan University)
Digital Analysis for Confucian Academies in East Asia
Dr. CHEN Shih-Pei (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science) & Prof. Mariana Favila-Vázquez (CIESAS–Unidad Ciudad de México)
Treating a Genre as a Knowledge System: A Digital Research Methodology for Studying Chinese Local Gazetteers
Dr. CHOI Donghyeok (Hong Kong Baptist University)
AI Methods to Construct and Analyze Large-Scale Historical Databases
Dr. Rafał Jan Felbur (Heidelberg University)
Born-digital Dictionary of Early Chinese Buddhist Translations
All DH Lunchtalks will take place from 12:30 to 13:30 (Central European Time) and will be held online via Webex. Further details for each session, including abstracts and access links, will be announced in advance on the CrossAsia blog. The first talk, by Prof. Michael Yan Hon Chung, will be announced shortly on CrossAsia.
If you have any questions about the DH Lunchtalks, or if you are interested in proposing a future talk and sharing your own digital research, please contact Dr. Jing Hu at jing.hu@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
We look forward to welcoming many of you to the CrossAsia DH Lunchtalks 2026!
Yours,
CrossAsia Team
Wartungsarbeiten auf CrossAsia am 14.01.2026
/in Aktuelles, Datenbanken, Services/by CrossAsiaLiebe Nutzer:innen,
am 14.01.2026 finden zwischen 06:00 und 07:30 Uhr Wartungsarbeiten an der CrossAsia-Seite statt. In dieser Zeit werden keine Anmeldungen an den CrossAsia-Diensten möglich sein.
Bitte entschuldigen Sie die Unannehmlichkeiten.
***
Dear users,
On January 14, 2026, between 6:00 and 7:30 a.m. maintenance work will be carried out on the CrossAsia website. During this time, registrations on CrossAsia services will be interrupted.
Please excuse the inconvenience.
Jetzt lizenziert: Contemporary Chinese Newspaper Full-Text Database mit 737 Zeitungen
/in Aktuelles, Datenbanken/by Cordula GumbrechtLiebe Nutzer:innen,
kurz vor dem Jahresende haben wir die seit Oktober im Testzugriff verfügbare Contemporary Chinese Newspaper Full-Text Database 当代中文数字报纸数据库 nun dauerhaft lizenziert. Die Datenbank enthält einen Fundus von 737 regionalen und überregionalen Tages-, Abend- und Wochenzeitungen. Mit der Lizenzierung der Datenbank stehen nun – soweit seitens der jeweiligen Verlage freigegeben – auch die Archive der Zeitungen zur Verfügung. Sie können nach Zeitungen stöbern oder aber gezielt nach Artikeln, Seiten und Bildern (mithilfe der Bildunterschriften) suchen.
Sie finden die Datenbank auf unserer Datenbankenseite indem Sie den Titel der Datenbank direkt in den Suchschlitz eingeben oder aber durch Anklicken der Kategorie „Zeitungen & Magazine“ und der Sprache „Chinesisch“ bzw. des Regionalen Clusters „Chinesische Sprachregionen“.
Mit den besten Wünschen zum Neuen Jahr,
Ihr CrossAsia Team
Neuer Testzugang: 中国共产党思想理论资源数据库
/in Aktuelle Testzugänge, Aktuelles/by Cordula GumbrechtTesten Sie die Datenbank Zhongguo Gongchandang sixiang lilun ziyuan shujuku 中国共产党思想理论资源数据库 und senden Sie uns Ihr Feedback! Der Testzugang ist bis zum 12. Februar 2026 aktiv.
Die Datenbank enthält in 14 Subdatenbanken nahezu 19.000 Werke und Dokumente zur Ideologie und Theorie der Kommunistischen Partei Chinas seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 1921, darunter u.a. 1.650 Titel aus der Zeit der Kulturrevolution. Die Titel erschienen überwiegend im Verlag 人民出版社. Als besonderes Tool bietet die Datenbank unter dem Reiter 经典著作引文比对 die Möglichkeit zum Abgleich von Zitaten aus den „Klassischen Schriften“ des Marxismus bzw. Sozialismus chinesischer Prägung.
Die Datenbank ist im Volltext durchsuchbar.
Wir wünschen Ihnen viel Spaß beim Ausprobieren und freuen uns über Ihre Rückmeldungen an x-asia!
Ihr CrossAsia-Team
Behoben / CrossAsia Repository: Anmeldungsprobleme
/in E-Publishing, Services/by CrossAsia12.12.25: Die Anmeldungsprobleme sind behoben.
*******************
Liebe Nutzer:innen,
es kommt derzeit zu Problemen bei der Anmeldung im CrossAsia Repository. Wir arbeiten an der Behebung des technischen Fehlers und melden uns wieder bei Ihnen sobald er behoben ist.
12.12.25: The login problems habe been fixed.
*******************
Dear users,
We are currently facing issues with logging into the CrossAsia Repository. We are working to resolve the technical error and will get back to you as soon as it has been fixed.
Kuzushiji Workshop 2026
/in Aktuelles, Fachinformationsdienst/by Christian DunkelVom 25.-27. Februar 2026 findet ein gemeinsam vom National Institute of Japanese Literature (NIJL) und der European Association of Japanese Resource Specialists (EAJRS) in Kooperation mit der Ostasienabteilung der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (SBB) organisierter Workshop zur Einführung in das Lesen kursiv geschriebener bzw. gedruckter vormoderner japanischer Texte (kuzushiji) mit Materialien aus der Sammlung der SBB statt.
Der Workshop wird in Präsenz im Haus an der Potsdamer Straße der SBB in Berlin stattfinden, ein Hybridformat ist nicht vorgesehen.
Er ist offen für Bibliothekar:innen, Kurator:innen, Wissenschaftler:innen und postgraduierte Studierende auch mit wenig bis gar keinen Erfahrungen im Lesen dieser Materialien.
Die Teilnahme ist kostenfrei, die Zahl der zur Verfügung stehenden Plätze aber auf 25 begrenzt. Ggf. entstehende Kosten für Anreise, Übernachtung und Verpflegung müssen durch die Teilnehmenden selbst getragen werden.
Weitere Informationen zum Workshop und zur Anmeldung finden sich auf der Webseite der EAJRS, Informationen zu den Workshops der letzten Jahre inkl. Verlinkungen zu Videoaufzeichnungen und Arbeitsmaterialien finden sich hier.
CrossAsia Talks: Huiyi Wu, Mackenzie Cooley, Shih-Pei Chen 4. Dezember 2025
/in Aktuelles, Veranstaltungen, Vortragsreihe "CrossAsia Talks"/by CrossAsia(See English below)
Zum Jahresabschluss der CrossAsia Talks am 4. Dezember ab 18 Uhr geben Mackenzie Cooley (Hamilton College, USA), Huiyi Wu (Centre Alexandre Koyré, Frankreich), and Shih-Pei Chen (Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin) in ihrem Onlinevortrag “Knowing an Empire: Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Worlds in Dialogue” einen Einblick in den gleichnamigen Sammelband.
This collective book, edited by Cooley and Wu, brings leading scholars across Latin American and Asian Studies to write about how two early modern, vast empires – the Spanish and the Chinbese, despite being, separated by thousands of miles, developed comparable systems to gather, order, and write knowledge about their local worlds. Through a new methodology of “juxtapositional comparison,” this book reads the difangzhi 地方志 (local gazetteers) of China and the relaciones geográficas of the Spanish world in parallel. Knowing an Empire does not see the conveyance of information across an empire as a top-down process with an active center as a knowledge-maker. Instead, it amplifies a blend of voices that speak as much to imperial bureaucracy as to the rich local and Indigenous cultures, revealing these two early modern empires as diverse polities whose equilibria were constantly rebalanced among local powers.
This talk will also give glimpses into some of the book chapters to demonstrate how the juxtapositional comparison is done.
Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch. Bei Fragen kontaktieren Sie uns unter: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
Der Vortrag wird via Webex gestreamt*. Sie können am Vortrag über Ihren Browser ohne Installation einer Software teilnehmen. Klicken Sie dazu unten auf „Zum Vortrag“, folgen dem Link „Über Browser teilnehmen“ und geben Ihren Namen ein.
Alle bislang angekündigten Vorträge finden Sie hier. Die weiteren Termine kündigen wir in unserem Blog und auf unserem X-Account, Mastodon und BlueSky an.
—
To mark the year-end conclusion of the CrossAsia Talks on December 4, at 6 p.m., Mackenzie Cooley (Hamilton College, USA), Huiyi Wu (Centre Alexandre Koyré, France), and Shih-Pei Chen (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin) will give in their online lecture entitled “Knowing an Empire: Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Worlds in Dialogue” and share insights into their recent publication of the same title.
This collective book, edited by Cooley and Wu, brings leading scholars across Latin American and Asian Studies to write about how two early modern, vast empires – the Spanish and the Chinbese, despite being, separated by thousands of miles, developed comparable systems to gather, order, and write knowledge about their local worlds. Through a new methodology of “juxtapositional comparison,” this book reads the difangzhi 地方志 (local gazetteers) of China and the relaciones geográficas of the Spanish world in parallel. Knowing an Empire does not see the conveyance of information across an empire as a top-down process with an active center as a knowledge-maker. Instead, it amplifies a blend of voices that speak as much to imperial bureaucracy as to the rich local and Indigenous cultures, revealing these two early modern empires as diverse polities whose equilibria were constantly rebalanced among local powers.
This talk will also give glimpses into some of the book chapters to demonstrate how the juxtapositional comparison is done.
The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
The lecture will be streamed via Webex*. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser” (“über Browser teilnehmen”), and enter your name.
You can find all previously announced lectures here. We will announce further dates in our blog and on X, Mastodon and BlueSky.
*Mit Ihrer Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung räumen Sie der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und ihren nachgeordneten Einrichtungen kostenlos alle Nutzungsrechte an den Bildern/Videos ein, die während der Veranstaltung von Ihnen angefertigt wurden. Dies schließt auch die kommerzielle Nutzung ein. Diese Einverständniserklärung gilt räumlich und zeitlich unbeschränkt und für die Nutzung in allen Medien, sowohl für analoge als auch für digitale Verwendungen. Sie umfasst auch die Bildbearbeitung sowie die Verwendung der Bilder für Montagen. / By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.
CrossAsia Talks: Niklas Leverenz 12. Februar 2026
/in Veranstaltungen, Vortragsreihe "CrossAsia Talks"/by CrossAsia(See English below)
Freuen Sie sich mit uns auf den 12. Feburar! Niklas Leverenz wird im Rahmen unserer CrossAsia Talks ab 18 Uhr zum Thema “Resurfaced in our collection: The Lithographs of the East-Turkestan Engravings (Shanghai, 1891), originally printed in Paris between 1767 and 1774” referieren. Der Onlinevortrag behandelt ein kürzlich in der Sammlung der Staatsbibliothek wiederentdecktes Set photolithographischer Reproduktionen der ursprünglich in Paris angefertigten Schlachtenkupfer.
Reproductions of the famous East Turkestan engravings made in Paris around 1770 were printed in Shanghai in 1891 using the then new technology of photolithography. About twenty sets of these prints seem to exist, but very little is known about them.
The collection of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin owns one set of these unique prints which it acquired in 1965. The set was misplaced but could just recently be reallocated with the help of an article published by the speaker of this session, Niklas Leverenz, in the latest issue of the journal Orientations.
In this session, Niklas Leverenz will explain the historic background of the East Turkestan campaign in 1755-1760 which resulted in the subjugation of large territories in Central Asia that include much of the present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. To celebrate his victory, the Qianlong emperor (r. 1735-1796) commissioned numerous artefacts, including sixteen monumental battle paintings, each measuring approximately four by eight metres. They were hung on the walls of the Ziguangge (Hall of Imperial Splendour) in the gardens to the west of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Four Jesuit missionary painters working at the Qing court at the time drew reduced versions of these monumental battle paintings measuring c. 60 by 90 centimetres. These were to serve as model drawings for engravings to be made in France. The production of the sixteen conquest engravings in Paris between 1767 and 1774 attracted much public attention. One of these sets is known to have been in the Jesuit orphanage in Tushanwan, in the historically Catholic district of Shanghai, part of the area also called Xujiahui or Zikawei. This set was presumably the model for the photolithographic copies made by the German photographer Herman Salzwedel (active c. 1877–1904) in 1890.
The introduction of lithography in Shanghai in the late nineteenth century led to an increasing demand for images. From 1884 on the illustrated newspaper Dianshizhai Pictorial was published three times a month, successfully reproducing battle scenes from i.e. the Sino-French War. In this situation the Salzwedel print project was conceived.
Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch. Bei Fragen kontaktieren Sie uns unter: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
Der Vortrag wird via Webex gestreamt*. Sie können am Vortrag über Ihren Browser ohne Installation einer Software teilnehmen. Klicken Sie dazu unten auf „Zum Vortrag“, folgen dem Link „Über Browser teilnehmen“ und geben Ihren Namen ein.
Alle bislang angekündigten Vorträge finden Sie hier. Die weiteren Termine kündigen wir in unserem Blog und auf unserem X-Account, Mastodon und BlueSky an.
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On 12 February at 6 p.m., we look forward to an online lecture by Niklas Leverenz on the topic ‘Resurfaced in our collection: The Lithographs of the East-Turkestan Engravings (Shanghai, 1891), originally printed in Paris between 1767 and 1774’. The lecture will focus on a recently rediscovered set of photolithographic reproductions from the State Library’s collection, which were produced in Shanghai in 1891 based on Parisian copperplate engravings of the Qianlong conquest campaigns.
Reproductions of the famous East Turkestan engravings made in Paris around 1770 were printed in Shanghai in 1891 using the then new technology of photolithography. About twenty sets of these prints seem to exist, but very little is known about them.
The collection of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin owns one set of these unique prints which it acquired in 1965. The set was misplaced but could just recently be reallocated with the help of an article published by the speaker of this session, Niklas Leverenz, in the latest issue of the journal Orientations.
In this session, Niklas Leverenz will explain the historic background of the East Turkestan campaign in 1755-1760 which resulted in the subjugation of large territories in Central Asia that include much of the present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. To celebrate his victory, the Qianlong emperor (r. 1735-1796) commissioned numerous artefacts, including sixteen monumental battle paintings, each measuring approximately four by eight metres. They were hung on the walls of the Ziguangge (Hall of Imperial Splendour) in the gardens to the west of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
Four Jesuit missionary painters working at the Qing court at the time drew reduced versions of these monumental battle paintings measuring c. 60 by 90 centimetres. These were to serve as model drawings for engravings to be made in France. The production of the sixteen conquest engravings in Paris between 1767 and 1774 attracted much public attention. One of these sets is known to have been in the Jesuit orphanage in Tushanwan, in the historically Catholic district of Shanghai, part of the area also called Xujiahui or Zikawei. This set was presumably the model for the photolithographic copies made by the German photographer Herman Salzwedel (active c. 1877–1904) in 1890.
The introduction of lithography in Shanghai in the late nineteenth century led to an increasing demand for images. From 1884 on the illustrated newspaper Dianshizhai Pictorial was published three times a month, successfully reproducing battle scenes from i.e. the Sino-French War. In this situation the Salzwedel print project was conceived.
The lecture will be held in English. If you have any questions, please contact us: ostasienabt@sbb.spk-berlin.de.
The lecture will be streamed via Webex*. You can take part in the lecture using your browser without having to install a special software. Please click on the respective button “To the lecture” below, follow the link “join via browser” (“über Browser teilnehmen”), and enter your name.
You can find all previously announced lectures here. We will announce further dates in our blog and on X, Mastodon and BlueSky.
*Mit Ihrer Teilnahme an der Veranstaltung räumen Sie der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und ihren nachgeordneten Einrichtungen kostenlos alle Nutzungsrechte an den Bildern/Videos ein, die während der Veranstaltung von Ihnen angefertigt wurden. Dies schließt auch die kommerzielle Nutzung ein. Diese Einverständniserklärung gilt räumlich und zeitlich unbeschränkt und für die Nutzung in allen Medien, sowohl für analoge als auch für digitale Verwendungen. Sie umfasst auch die Bildbearbeitung sowie die Verwendung der Bilder für Montagen. / By participating, you grant the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and its subordinate institutions free of charge all rights of usage of pictures and videos taken of you during this lecture presentation. This declaration of consent is valid in terms of time and space without restrictions and for usage in all media, including analogue and digital usage. It includes image processing and the usage of photos in composite illustrations. German law will apply.