Institut für Sinologie Digital Humanities Methods for Sinologists: From No-Code Tools to Python and AI

The first day will cover the foundations of DH and what it can offer for your research. After an overview of the field, participants will practise turning research questions into testable hypotheses, identifying which aspects of their sources can be quantified. The rest of the day is hands-on work with browser-based tools that need no installation or coding. Participants will work with sample datasets to explore various DH approaches, such as network analysis and digital mapping. The day ends with a Q&A and help with setting up the software for Day 2.

The second day will turn to Python and artificial intelligence. Participants will learn basic programming concepts, how to load and process data, use regular expressions, and how to install and work with packages. We will apply these skills to work with Chinese-language materials, addressing the particular challenges of Chinese text and introducing methods of corpus analysis. In the afternoon, a session on the core principles of AI will cover how current models work, and what their limitations are. Participants will learn to use AI to generate and run Python code, and to write scripts that send requests to AI models through an API. The workshop will close with guided practice, where participants can begin applying these methods to their own research projects.

Participants are encouraged to bring their own research questions and data. By the end, they will have a practical sense of which digital methods suit their work and the foundational skills to pursue them further.

This workshop is funded by the Quality Assurance Funds (QSM).