Digitalizing LEE Yonggang’s Diaries: Preserving History and Cultural Connections

Digital Humanities Project

This project received the Digital Humanities Seed Funding, which is utilized for students recruitment. The two recruited students (1st image: CHAN Ching Crystal from BEng in Computer Engineering; 2nd image: PENG Wanwen from BSc in Global China Studies) actively participated in the project during the fall semester of 2024, contributing their efforts from September 2024 to January 2025.

About This Project

Led by Prof. David Cheng Chang, this project focuses on digitizing and digitalizing the diaries of Mr. Lee Yonggang (李永剛先生), an esteemed composer and music educator in modern China and Taiwan. These diaries are written by Mr. Lee Yonggang during the tumultuous Sino-Japanese War, as well as the subsequent years of peace in post-1949 Taiwan. These diaries serve as a remarkable historical resource, offering a unique perspective from a “small intellectual” that resonates deeply with the common people. Unlike diaries authored by political leaders like Chiang Kai-shek, Lee’s diaries provide a more personal and relatable narrative.

A heartfelt thanks to Prof. Leo Lee Ou-fan (李歐梵教授), who is also our HKUST’s IAS Distinguished Visiting Professor, for granting us permission to digitize the physical copy of his father’s (Mr. Lee Yonggang) diaries and use them for developing digital humanities project.

Lee’s wartime diaries document his own experiences, as well as those of his school and family, as they fled from advancing Japanese troops, capturing the arduous journey of refugees. His peacetime diaries chronicle the history of Taiwan through the lens of a music teacher and composer, who had extensive interactions with a diverse range of cultural and intellectual figures.

During the fall semester of 2024, the project team digitized a selection of Lee’s physical diaries through scanning, conducted research on the places and people that mentioned in the diaries, and created a map visualization with heatmap, timeline and price indices elements on one of the volumes – the one that was written in 1945 which titled 《虎口餘生錄》.

Who is Lee Yonggang (李永剛)?

Born in Taikang, Henan Province, Lee Yonggang (1911-1995) began learning the organ from his father at a young age, which introduced him to music. In 1931, he was admitted to the Music Department of National Central University, where he majored in composition and played in string quartet with Ma Hiao-Tsiun 馬孝駿, Yo-Yo Ma’s father. During his studies, he learned various music knowledge and skills from Western educated professors, including Ma Sicong, who greatly influenced his musical path.

In 1949, he moved to Taiwan and served as the dean of the Hsinchu Normal School. In 1956, he taught at the Political Warfare Cadres School of the Ministry of National Defense (now the School of Political Warfare), actively improving the professional level of the music department and promoting music composition. After retiring in 1977, he used written works to promote his music composition ideas, with major works including “Conducting Techniques” and “Composition Techniques.”

In 1985, he became the chairman of the Editorial and Review Committee of the newly established National Compilation and Translation Center of the Ministry of Education, where he worked with Chi Pangyuan and reviewed music textbooks for primary schools. He had broad connections with the education sector in Taiwan, composing over 150 school anthems.

Digitization

Thanks again to Prof. Leo Lee Ou-fan (李歐梵教授)‘s support on granting us permission to access 46 handwritten volumes of his father’s (Mr. Lee Yonggang) diaries which span from the 1940s to the 1980s.

A selection of these diaries has been digitized by our student helpers, Crystal and Wanwen, during the fall semester of 2024.

These diaries, with a history of over 40 to 80 years, have turned fragile over time. Digitizing them not only helps preserve the information but also facilitates easier access for reading and for subsequent research analysis.

In Lee’s diaries, he shared his own experiences along with the stories of his school and family. Some entries reflect the history of Taiwan from the perspective of a music teacher and composer who mingled with various cultural and intellectual figures. One of the charms found from his 1961 diary was a photo of Yo-Yo Ma 馬友友, who is now one of the world’s greatest cellists, playing the cello in his childhood. In his diary on 1961-06-17, he mentioned that he wrote an article featuring Yo-Yo Ma as the youngest cellist in China at that time, and the article was published in the newspaper on that day. He planned to get a copy for his close friend, Ma Hiao-Tsiun 馬孝駿 (Yo-Yo Ma’s father) to celebrate this moment.

A photo of Yo-Yo Ma was attached in Lee Yonggang’s diary (1961-06-17)

The back of this photo
written「三歲半神童馬友友」

Footprints of Lee Yonggang
during March - June 1945

The year 1945 was a crucial turning point in China’s history, signaling the end of the World War II (1939-1945).

This year was also important for Lee and his family. They fled from advancing Japanese troops, capturing the arduous journey of refugees during the Sino-Japanese War.

After digitizing Lee’s handwritten diary of that year, we decided to use this volume as a starting point to create a map illustrates the movements of Lee and his family, accompanied by the digitized pages of his handwritten entries from 26 March 1945 to 11 June 1945, together with the elements of heatmap and timeline, showcase the additional information such as danger level and walking distance by day.

We hope this map helps better understand the challenges faced by refugees in that turbulent period. It also demonstrates the possibility of digital humanities can help in analyzing and visualizing this kind of materials from different perspectives using digital tools.

Visit our map here: https://digitalhumanities.hkust.edu.hk/leeyonggang-diary/map_1945

How to view the diaries?

Price indices in 1945

By reading Lee’s diary, we can observe the inflation of prices during wartime. One of our student helpers, Wanwen, designed a menu-style poster to show these mentioned prices by provinces and categories.

Words from Students

“…This project has provided me with a rare chance to engage with related topics, allowing a lively result of historical research instead of traditional papers and essays. The most rewarding part is being deeply involved in this field, where I have learned new ideas and ongoing projects presented by other scholars.

This experience is great practice for my programming skills, particularly in website development and data visualization. Additionally, I have explored lesser-known aspects of Chinese history that I am willing to understand and know more. I encourage everyone to consider exploring different types of projects like this project to broaden the horizon.”

CHAN Ching, Crystal
Year 4, BEng in Computer Engineering

“…My primary responsibilities in this project included scanning paper diaries into digital images, searching for relevant data and maps, and designing posters for price lists…As a Global China Studies (GCS) student, this was my first experience using GitHub. I learned how to modify the code on this platform…I also learned to use VS Code to update the webpage’s content…

Overall, through this project, I engaged with invaluable primary historical materials…record and preserve these firsthand accounts from 80 years ago. I also uncovered historical details embedded within these materials…“

PENG Wanwen
Year 4, BSc in Global China Studies

More to go...

During this fall semester, we digitized a small selection of diaries from the 46 handwritten volumes, yet many volumes remain untouched. To showcase the potential of this set of materials, we selected one volume to develop a map visualization with heatmap and timeline components with the digitized pages under the support of the Digital Humanities Seed Funding scheme. This serves as a proof of concept that can be replicated to the subsequent years of diaries.

We hope that the proof of concept and the workflow that we established during this fall semester could lay a robust foundation for pursuing further RGC funding, enabling us to drive further progress in processing the remaining diaries. We believe that continuing this research could help the academia enrich the understanding of the history, culture, and society of modern China and Taiwan. The digital format will provide unprecedented opportunities for interdisciplinary research, encouraging collaborations between historians, musicologists, sociologists, and other scholars interested in the intersections of music, war, migration, and intellectual networks. We aim to unlock the wealth of knowledge contained within Lee’s diaries, ensuring their long-term preservation and broad dissemination, and engage diverse audiences, fostering a deeper appreciation for the experiences of individuals during times of war, social upheaval, and cultural transformation.

Project Team

Prof. David Cheng CHANG (Division of Humanities)
Dr. Qiuzi GUO (Division of Humanities & Library)
Holly CHAN (Library)
CHAN Ching, Crystal (student from Computer Engineering)
PENG Wanwen (student from Global China Studies)

What tools we have used?

Here, we would also like to share some of the useful tools that we utilized in this digital humanities project. We hope that our sharing will be beneficial for others in their own projects. If you are working on similar things and find our sharing helpful, please feel free to let us know. We would love to hear about your experiences and feedback. Together, we can make a positive impact in the field of digital humanities, fostering an open and collaborative sharing culture all together.

Digitization: CZUR M3000 Pro V2 scanner
Text analysis: For person and place name extraction – used HKUST Library’s Chinese NER Tool alongside with human research and made use of regex expressions to capture as much as possible, and a final human check to ensure accuracy.
Map: React Leaflet, Leaflet Routing Machine
Heatmap: HeatMap for React
Timeline: React Vertical Timeline