Presentation
Nanlai Zhi Hua (Flowers from the South): A Spatio-Temporal Visualization of the works and lives of Hong Kong’s Southbound Literati
SessionMediated Data
DescriptionNanlai Zhi Hua (Flowers from the South) is a data-driven visualization project that explores the narrative geographies and affective landscapes of Hong Kong’s Southbound Literati, a group of writers who migrated from Mainland China after 1949. Combining methods from literary mapping, spatial theory, and affective design, the project visualizes both the authors’ lived geographies and locations referenced in their literary works to examine themes of displacement, memory, and cultural identity. Drawing on texts from 25 authors—including Jin Yong and Eileen Chang—the study translates narrative motifs into poetic “data flowers” through methods such as temporal juxtaposition and color-time flattening. Each flower metaphorically represents an author’s creative journey, capturing the interplay between biography, narrative, and spatial memory.
The three-stage creation process involves compiling biographical and narrative data, applying visual encoding, and rendering the results using tools such as Gephi, Blender, and Houdini. Network graphs, spatial layouts, and visual metaphors collectively reveal how spatial nostalgia and emotional landmarks structure diasporic texts. These visualizations were exhibited through an installation using projection mapping and dynamic displays to foster public engagement with literary space.
By emphasizing interpretive flexibility over analytical finality, the project offers a prototype for humanities-centered visualization. It demonstrates how interdisciplinary techniques can visually uncover latent narrative structures and emotional patterns in literary geography. The work contributes to spatial literary studies and showcases how data visualization can support new modes of scholarly and public interpretation in digital humanities contexts.
The three-stage creation process involves compiling biographical and narrative data, applying visual encoding, and rendering the results using tools such as Gephi, Blender, and Houdini. Network graphs, spatial layouts, and visual metaphors collectively reveal how spatial nostalgia and emotional landmarks structure diasporic texts. These visualizations were exhibited through an installation using projection mapping and dynamic displays to foster public engagement with literary space.
By emphasizing interpretive flexibility over analytical finality, the project offers a prototype for humanities-centered visualization. It demonstrates how interdisciplinary techniques can visually uncover latent narrative structures and emotional patterns in literary geography. The work contributes to spatial literary studies and showcases how data visualization can support new modes of scholarly and public interpretation in digital humanities contexts.
Authors
Event Type
Art Papers
TimeWednesday, 17 December 20251:36pm - 1:48pm HKT
LocationMeeting Room S222, Level 2
