Digitally Reimagined: The Cultural Revolution's Photo Archives in the Digital Humanities Perspective

Navigating the complexities of a multitude of photographs to examine  compositions, patterns, and postures is a significant challenge. The Paul Lin photo archive at HKUST, comprising images captured by Xinhua News Agency photojournalists, offers a distinctive lens on the Cultural Revolution. The project utilizes machine learning to identify consistencies in the composition and visual elements of the photographs, thus shaping a new narrative about social interactions, work, dance, and festivities in 1970s China during the Cultural Revolution.

The archive also features bilingual captions in Chinese and English. Using topic modeling, it highlights recurring themes such as revolution (革命), production (生產), and celebration (慶祝). Digitally remapping these photographs reveals patterns, both visually and textually, that offer a fresh framework for interpreting this historic period.

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