Campus Digest

Distinguished history alumnus examines print technology and book culture in Imperial China

04 Dec 2018

Professor Chow Kai-wing discusses the development of print technology and book culture. Professor Chow Kai-wing discusses the development of print technology and book culture.
Professor Chow Kai-wing discusses the development of print technology and book culture.

The Department of History invited Professor Chow Kai-wing, a graduate from the class of 1976 and a Professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA, to host a distinguished alumni lecture on 29 November.

 

The lecture, which was entitled “Printing Technology, Book Culture, and the World of Print in Imperial China”, explored the development and history of print technology in Imperial China. In the lecture, Professor Chow focused on the technologies that produced multiple identical copies and concluded that printing, especially xylography, transformed literary practices both in governance and the daily lives of Chinese people in this period.