FIAT/IFTA World Conference 16-10-13 Weihong Yu

1. Using Innovation And User Participation: The New Media Project Of The Visual Map
of Sino-JapaneseWarIn Shanghai
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I am Yu Weihong from Shanghai Media Group of China.
I'm so glad that have the opportunity to share the experience of using audiovisual archives with
so many friends here. and I'll introduce the project we created, namely the Visual Map of the
Sino-Japanese War in Shanghai. Through it to discuss the preservation and promotion the cultural
value of historical audiovisual heritage.
Before the presentation, please allow me to introduce our company SMG and SAVA for few
minutes to help you to know us.
Shanghai Media Group or SMG is one of China’s largest media and cultural broadcaster
company, with the most complete portfolio of media and related businesses. On the content side,
SMG is a leading powerhouse in China in the production of TV, films, animation and
documentaries. SMG has 15 cable and satellite TV networks, 13 radio frequencies, 15
subscription-based digital pay TV channels and 11 HD channels.
Shanghai Audio-Visual Archives (SAVA), namely Copyright Assets Centre of SMG was
established in 1984. As a unit of SMG, SAVA is the first professional institution to implement
centralized management on radio and television program files in China, and makes great efforts
in media copyright management, media assets service, archive researching and content
exploitation.
SAVA is also the only professional audio-visual archive of Shanghai, which especially focuses on
collecting and managing precious historical archives of Shanghai and now has 100,000 pieces of
news, documentaries, footage and so forth dated from 1898, which vividly describe Shanghai’s
more than 100 years’ history.
In the special collection of Shanghai history, the audiovisual archives about the Sino-Japanese
War in Shanghai broke out in 1932 and 1937 are the most plentiful. It is the mainly resources to
createthe project of the Visual Map of the Sino-Japanese War in Shanghai.
Then, I will introduce it in four steps to describe the project.
This is Warsaw，the beautiful city we are here now. To a stranger here, through the prosperous
cityscape nowadays it is not easily to realize that Warsaw is a rebirth city from the war, but in fact,
eighty-five percent of the city destroyed in the second World War.
the same to Shanghai, the city I came from. Today, Shanghai is one of the most international
metropolis in the world, the skyline of Shanghai has changed a lot than before. As the city of
Warsaw, Shanghai suffered a lot in the war, too. Confront with the history, all mankind would
have the empathy to the scars of war.
2015 is the year of commemoration of 70th anniversary of victory over the World Anti-Fascist
War, many commemorative activities were held all over the world, such as the reappearance of
the V-J Day in Times Square in New York, and the anniversary parades of the second World War
veterans in London, and so on.
The Battlefield of China was the important part of the World Anti-Fascist War from 1931 to
1945 against Japan. The war was covered almost the whole China. Shanghai Battle is the largest
battlein this war.

2. On the picture is the memorial of Sihang warehouse defense. It was open to public on August
13th in 2015, the anniversary of Shanghai Battle. It is the only war memorial on the former site of
the war. SAVA gavesupport for the audiovisual showcasing in the war Memorial.
We make lots of efforts to express the commemoration to the city memory, especially told the
young people who born and lived in peace and have no war experience to remember the history
and cherish peace.
Firstly, I’ll describe the Special historical audiovisual Collection of Shanghai Battle in
Sino-Japanese War held by SAVA. It makes up the base of the visual map project.
In 1930s‘, Shanghai as the most prosperous city in Fareast was very International, with locals
and foreigners lived in the city. When the war broke out in Shanghai, it shocked the city and the
world. Thus there were plentiful historical footages of the war left in the history. These footages
were recorded in different perspective.
Chinese filmmaker with overall national interests held the camera as a weapon to record the
war and appeal for resistance against Japan.
the Japanese military for the purpose of the war also recorded the city during the war.
Journalists from all of the great famous international news agencies recorded the war and sent
reports from Shanghai to the world.
Besides, people lived in Shanghai left some private records shot by home camera.
for instance, the Chinese cameraman is Wang Xiaoting，his English name is Newsreel Wong. he
worked for Hearst News and turned his camera to record the suffering of the common people
when the war broke out. the famous picture and the newsreel were about A Chinese baby amid
the wreckage at Shanghai South Station after the Japanese planes bombing . It sent to the world
through the international news service of Hearst News and make people over the world know the
war happened in China.
Since 2005, SAVA had worked on collecting the Sino-Japanese War motion pictures and built
up a special collection about more than 100 hours audiovisual archives. It is one of the largest
audiovisual collections about this history over the world.
Meanwhile we have been working on restoring, cataloguing, digitizing and researching on it
during the 20 years. This work made up the basic condition to create the project of the visual
map.
The second part, I will talk about what the project is.
Now we’ll watch a video describing the idea of the Visual Map. I’m sorry It’s only in Chinese,
just have a look, each piece of footage fit a crucial landmark in wartime Shanghai.
The visual map is produced as a website mainly to fit the new media environment for easy
access. Besides, the project blended in mobile internet, newspaper and offline activities in full
use of the modern media.
The third part is about the form of the visual map.
The historical footage collection of the war were plentiful but fragmental because of the
complicated factors: the time past for long, the bad storing circumstance, and so on. So we use
the point, line and plane on the maps to integrate pieces of historical footages in whole to reveal
the historical context in Wartime Shanghai. The point fit the landmark, the line and the plane fit

3. the course of events and regions.
On index of the website is a historical map of Shanghai in1930s, and we use the red points on
the map to mark the important landmarks. When moving the mouse cursor to the red point, it
will display a pop-up to tell you the information of the landmark nowadays. And clipping up the
red point, it will takeyou to the detail page about the landmark.
The detail page of the landmark include the historical and present information. A picture on
the top left corner is about the landmark nowadays. Below the picture is the passage to
introduce the status of this place in the war. At the bottom of it is the online map. help the users
to get the position and the way to get there. On the right, the mainly part of this page is the
historical footages and pictures of this landmark. If you want to watch the footages, just click up
the small pictures.
Besides the map of the landmark, there are other two maps to reflect the status further in
wartime Shanghai. on the other two maps, the footages are more focus on the theme, and the
different button on the map relatedto the content of the footages.
One map reflect the historical event “ To Guard Great Shanghai”. The cannon express the
battlefield, the loudspeaker and the red cross express the region of the neutral foreign
settlement, in which the activities of anti-Japanese propagandizing, donation, refugee relief and
the wounded assistance can be done.
The other is about the flowing of the refugee and its relief. the button of the foot express the
direction of refugee flowing and the red cross express the refugee relief.
The maps integrated the historical footages in the logic relation of space to showcase the
course of the Sino-Japanese War in Shanghai and help the users to understand what happened in
Wartime Shanghai.
The fourth part is to discuss the trying of Multi-dimensional Convergence through the project.
We hope the visual map is not only a product, and not only concern about the war, but also a
multi-dimensional Convergence of showcasing the audiovisual heritage in rich form and promote
their cultural value.
A traditional form as a historical documentary limited by its narrative structure was difficult to
showcase the history scenes of the city in whole. But the map with its advantage of spatial logic
can integratethe fragmentalfootages together to reveal the general history context.
In the other hand, the historical audiovisual archives of the war showcased that the whole city
involved in the war. Among the battle fields, the neutral region of the foreign settlement, the
safety zone and the suburban of Shanghai. But different part of the city were involved in different
extent, From the different status, we can find out the special political structure of Shanghai at
that time.
The urban space of Shanghai changed a lot as time passed, the historical footages provide the
details of the urban space in history to make the plane map vivid and three-dimensional. It was
enhanced the historical sense When we watch the footages related to the familiar streets or
buildings.
Most of the landmarks we chose on the visual map still exist today. Strolling along the busy
streets of Shanghai today, those famous landmarks look solid and beautiful, less people know
they were damaged seriously in the war. the historical footages help us to compare with the past
and the present. It would remind us to concern the past of the city.

4. The Peace Hotel (named Sassoon House before), Shanghai Fashion Store (named Sincere
Company). These building was damaged by bombing in the war.
Although history is associated with us closely, the history and the reality still need more
interaction to increase awareness of the existence and significance of documentary heritages.
The war in Shanghai destroyed the city and people’s lives. During the three months war in
1937, To Guard Shanghai, countless Chinese soldiers lost their lives on the front, and people at
rear area united to collect donation and materials to support the front. From comparing the
historical footages before and after the war, we would find out when the development track of
Shanghai was rewritten.
For example, Chapei, as the the new district of Shanghai in 1930s’, both of the war in Shanghai
in 1932 or in 1937 broke out here. In the bombing of the Japanese plane.
Chapei was overturned in the war. The Whole neat Shikumen buildings were bombed, and
China modern national industry and commerce gathering here damaged. for instance, the biggest
press in Fareast the commercial press and Oriental Library were destroyed, with thousands of
Chinese Ancient RareBooks fired in 1932.
Another example is about the Civic Center in Jiangwan, Chinese want to established a new
central area outside the foreign settlement in Shanghai at the end of 1920s', and the Great
Shanghai Plan had been proposed to construct the Civic Center in Jiangwan. The plan was carried
out smoothly From 1927 to 1937, the footages reflect that a large expo opened for celebrating
the tenth anniversary of the District of Shanghai several days agobefore the war broken.
The war interrupted the plan and the architecture were bombed, including the Shanghai
municipal government building. From the historical footages, we can see the comparison to
understand the city’s prosperity and decadent in the history.
When all of the Chinese residential areas came under attack, the Chinese refugees rushed into
the foreign concession for surviving, the foreign concession faced the unraveling wave of
refugees.
At that time, the International and domestic Charitable organization joined up to provide relief
for refugees and wounded people. Besides the harsh realities of war, refugee relief show the light
of humanism.
Father Jacquinot, a French priest, on the right of the picture, was very famous in wartime
Shanghai for his benevolence and the safety zone he advocated and established. The Jacquinot
zone protected more than 300,000 Chinese refugees and he was called father of Refugee by
Chinese. Now the former refugees of the Jacquinot zone in Shanghai still remember Father
Jacquinot impressively.
In 1937-1939, the Jewish refugees came from Germany and Central Europe to escape Nazi
persecutions move to Shanghai. Being a free port with no visa requirement, Shanghai had
appealed to them as a port of last resort.
On the Visual map, we provide the details of the history information to make users understand
the gene of internationalization of Shanghai all along.
The history could reappear vividly in the historical audiovisual heritages, but it still need to fit
the present communication environment to increase the awareness and have a role to play in the
cultural field nowadays. So it is important to make the historical audiovisual product conform to
the internet environment and the need of users.
In the era of internet plus, the new media tools could help us to showcase and recommend the

5. audiovisual archives. The Visual Map showcased as a website mainly, and it is a easy access for
the public to visit. Get a way to be close to the history of wartime Shanghai.
Furthermore, we recommended the visual map by the new media tools in the mobile Internet,
such as Weibo, Wechat, HTML5 and so on, with its advantage and feature of agility, convenience
and largeusers.
we cooperated with the famous new media platform in Shanghai with great cultural influence
to increase awareness of the visual map and the historical audiovisual heritage.
Besides, taking the example by O2O（online to offline）, SAVA organized the offline activities as
City Walk to looking for the historic sites marked on the visual map to interact between online
and offline.
We design the visiting line for users, and also initiated the activity on the website. The City
Walk offline combined the historical heritage and the lively activities as an orienteering which is
popular with young people, so it can be welcome in the youth. It is intended to raise awareness
of the youth to the importance of audiovisual heritage as integral part of the city identities and
memory.
In this way, we accumulated experience to organized the City Walk activities and we hope it
will be more social and draw more attentionto the historical audiovisual heritage.
Finally, I conclude by saying that as a professional audio-visual archive of Shanghai, SAVA do
more try to provide universal access to audiovisual heritage and to increase awareness of the
existence and significance of it. we hope to hear more advise and learn more form other
institutions to help us.
Thank you!