Introduction: A few years ago, for our library, I bought a high-quality reproduction of a twelfth century Chinese scroll, Qingming Festival on the River (Qingming shanghe tu) one of the most famous works from the Song dynasty. The scroll, painted with ink and light colors on silk, represents a genre scene of the Eastern Capital of twelfth century China, including commerce, costume, entertainments, light industries, architecture, and city planning. The painting begins in the countryside then progresses through the suburbs and port on the Bian River. The climax of the painting is brought about by taxonomically and dramatically depicting activities around the Rainbow Bridge. Finally, the scroll brings its viewers to the inner city &endash;&endash; inside the city walls. The approximately 770 figures come from all classes of Chinese society (though there is only one beggar, and most women are properly concealed in their sedan chairs). At least a dozen forms of transportation are represented, ranging from donkey and horse, wheelbarrow and oxen-drawn cart, to wooden ships with sophisticated tiller mechanisms considered to be the most reliable example of highly advanced ship building technology (Cf. The History of Chinese Science and Technology, ed. by Joseph Needham). Nearly everything about the scroll &endash;&endash; its title, subject, season, and even the place represented &endash;&endash; has been controversial, inspiring debates among scholars of Chinese history and art history.
The handscroll, roughly 12 inches high and more than 30 feet long, is meant to be held in both hands and read from right to left. While students could study the scroll using slides or books, neither of these adequately reproduces the handscroll format. In addition, the scroll's enormous depth of detail makes it very difficult to see all of the images clearly. Finally, though Reed's copy is a reproduction, it is still quite valuable and would not be appropriate to be passed around in class. The inadequacy of using slides to introduce the physical appearance of the scroll and the viewing process is apparent.
The problem of student access to the scroll was initially addressed in 1996 with support provided by the Dean's Development Fund. Marianne Colgrove and Mark Chen of CIS suggested that the scroll be digitized and developed for interactive viewing by means of Apple's Quick Time VR technology. QuickTime VR allows you to take still pictures and convert them into interactive, navigable scenes on a computer. It was originally designed for three-dimensional spaces, but it also works well for navigating two-dimensional images such as works of art. I identified more than 100 important details that the viewer would be able to examine with just a click of the mouse. In addition, by good fortune, I had access to over sixty slides taken of the original silk scroll, housed in the National Museum in Beijing. The original scroll is darkened with age and the photographs were taken under poor lighting conditions but we were able to retouch some of the images and use them as details.
The current version of the scroll CD was used with a computer projection system for classroom presentations during the last two spring semesters of Chinese Humanities. It was also loaded onto computers in the student computer labs for general access so that students could study the scroll at their leisure outside of class. Because of the zooming capability available with digital images, it is possible to see details on the computer version that are not clearly visible on the handscroll. As a result, the interactive scroll allows students to explore aspects of Chinese art and cultural history with much greater depth than would be possible working from the original physical scroll itself.
Description: Though the use of the digitized version of the Chinese Scroll has been successful, its value is limited by the fact that the interactive CD allows only for navigation and viewing of some details. To make full use of the multimedia capabilities of CD-ROM and VR technology, it would be valuable to add text about the content and context of the images, the Song Dynasty, the artist, and so forth. It would also help to add more image details, color correction, and the ability to "zero in" on fine details. The complete set of enhancements to the scroll would include:
Impact: The Chinese Scroll CD would be made available to the more than 30 students in the Chinese humanities course, Foundations of Chinese Civilization, and a number of art history courses in years to come.
Implementation plan: My development of text and Mark Chen's enhancement of the images and details from the newly ordered transparencies will take place simultaneously during the spring and summer of 1998. The CD will be developed by the end of the summer 1998. The materials will be tested in class during fall semester 1998, changes will be made as necessary, and the final version of the CD will be used in Chinese Humanities (HUM 230) during the spring of 1999.