The China Historical Christian Database: A Dataset Quantifying Christianity in China from 1550 to 1950

Alex Mayfield, Margaret Frei, Daryl Ireland () and Eugenio Menegon
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Alex Mayfield: Center for Global Christianity and Mission, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Margaret Frei: Center for Global Christianity and Mission, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Daryl Ireland: Center for Global Christianity and Mission, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA
Eugenio Menegon: Center for Global Christianity and Mission, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA

Data, 2024, vol. 9, issue 6, 1-7

Abstract: The era of digitization is revolutionizing traditional humanities research, presenting both novel methodologies and challenges. This field harnesses quantitative techniques to yield groundbreaking insights, contingent upon comprehensive datasets on historical subjects. The China Historical Christian Database (CHCD) exemplifies this trend, furnishing researchers with a rich repository of historical, relational, and geographical data about Christianity in China from 1550 to 1950. The study of Christianity in China confronts formidable obstacles, including the mobility of historical agents, fluctuating relational networks, and linguistic disparities among scattered sources. The CHCD addresses these challenges by curating an open-access database built in neo4j that records information about Christian institutions in China and those that worked inside of them. Drawing on historical sources, the CHCD contains temporal, relational, and geographic data. The database currently has over 40,000 nodes and 200,000 relationships, and continues to grow. Beyond its utility for religious studies, the CHCD encompasses broader interdisciplinary inquiries including social network analysis, geospatial visualization, and economic modeling. This article introduces the CHCD’s structure, and explains the data collection and curation process.

Keywords: open data; relational database; history; China; networks; geography; Christianity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C8 C80 C81 C82 C83 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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