Final Project Update: Hanson’s Journey Through China

Progress

We have completed our initial data collection and begun organizing materials for the mapping project. Team members have been reading assigned chapters from Hanson’s Humane Endeavour: The Story of the China War (1939) and labeling and categorizing photographs from the Carleton China 1949 Collection. We have also gathered digital maps of Chinese provinces from 1936 through the Asia Geographic Society.

We have completed the phase-by-phase classification of Hanson’s trip and initiated research into the historical context of each site. Specifically, we aim to identify pivotal local events and trace their links to the broader course of World War II in China. We hope these materials will complement the takeaways Hanson presents in his book and help audiences better understand his writing.

Problems

We initially planned to use wartime maps for our digital mapping, but such maps are scarce, and those we found either have licensing restrictions or insufficient resolution. Instead, we will use 1930–1940 maps that delineate historical administrative regions and the areas Hanson visited. We have also located province-level maps of his destinations with detailed topography and transport infrastructure. This information is essential for highlighting the types of places Hanson visited in China.

Tools and Techniques

We have selected WordPress for website design and ArcGIS Online for digital mapping. The 1936 maps will be georeferenced in ArcGIS to create interactive layers, and the final map will be embedded in our WordPress site alongside narrative content.

In addition to ArcGIS and WordPress, we will also use Knight Lab’s TimelineJS. We plan to develop a timeline of Hanson’s trip in China and embed it with the digital map. The timeline will be a linear representation of Hanson’s trip, and it will summarize major events and label each phase to enrich the map-based presentation.

Deliverables

In Week 8, we focused on reading source materials, organizing our data, and preparing the project’s initial content. We believe the progress achieved has successfully met our goals. In Week 9, we will georeference the historical maps and build the ArcGIS map using the digital maps we identified and the historical materials we collected, and we will also begin developing the WordPress site. By Week 10, we will finalize all remaining content and prepare the project for publication and presentation. Our current progress indicates that we are on track to complete the project on schedule.

Personal Messages

Evelyn Xie: I am responsible for the Japanese-occupied area section and webpage design. I have read the relevant chapters in Hanson’s book and am retrieving corresponding pictures from the Carleton digital collection. I am also considering which pages we want to include on our website and have created a draft for the layout.

Rui Shen: I found a source from Catalyst called Miscellaneous source materials on China including maps, copies of addresses and reports, cartoons, photographs, posters and CIA internal documents from the collection of Haldore Hanson. It is from a special collection, and it’s only in physical format. I have emailed the library for permission to view it personally next week. Besides, I read the chapter of Hanson’s book on the Nationalist-controlled areas section, and I am collecting and organizing the pictures with the events.

Aiden Guan: I have begun reviewing Hanson’s chapter on his time in guerrilla zones and researching key events and sources from early CCP base areas in Hebei and Shaanxi that coincide with his stay. My aim is to relate his conversations with CCP guerrilla fighters, especially with Lü Zhengcao, the commander-in-chief of the Central Hebei guerrillas, to these materials to present a fuller account in our digital mapping project. I have also located 1936 digital maps for all the provinces Hanson visited, which will be essential for the next stage of our work.

Richy Jing: I have read Hanson’s chapter on his time in Peking and begun researching key historical events surrounding the Japanese occupation of the city.

Citations

Hanson, Haldore. “Humane Endeavour” ; the Story of the China War / by Haldore Hanson. Farrar & Rinehart, inc., [c1939], 1939.

Hanson, Haldore. [Miscellaneous Source Materials on China Including Maps, Copies of Addresses and Reports, Cartoons, Photographs, Posters and CIA Internal Documents : From the Collection of Haldore Hanson]. [publisher not identified], 1900.