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Date(s)： 2023/07/20
Time： 14:00~16:00
Venue： Archives 3rd Conference Hall
Speaker：Dr. Loretta E. Kim （Associate Professor and Director, China Studies - Arts Stream University of Hong Kong [HKU]）
Organizer： Western Learning and China Research Group
The lack of relevant evidence is a frequently faced challenge for all historians and may undermine the completion of a project. However, since many lacunae will always exist in the quest for knowledge about the past, this talk contemplates the problem of how to make sense of incomplete historical evidence. The case study under analysis is the six-language glossary in the Draft Gazetteer of Heilongjiang published in 1932. In a section about geography and customs in this text, terms from Chinese, Manchu, Mongolian, Daur, Solon, and Orochen languages appear in a table together. However, there are many empty spaces in this table and no explanation given for how or why this table was compiled. Appreciating the motivations for why the compilers of the text included the incomplete but important content of the table and what both the existence and absence in that content contributes to our understanding of “local language” in Northeast China in that time period will be the goals of this discussion.