PROVINCIAL AND MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES
From Xiaoping Cong, Department of History, UCLA. (E-mail: xcong@ucla.edu). Based on comments prepared for a Roundtable on Chinese Archives at the Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, March 1999.
With fellowship support of the Center for Chinese Studies at UCLA, I made a trip to China for seven months (from September 1997 to March 1998) to conduct archival research for my dissertation on Normal School education in the twentieth century. I visited Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Shanghai, Nanjing, and Xi’an, and worked at Beijing Municipal Archives, Hebei Provincial Archives in Shijiazhuang, Shanghai Municipal Archives, East China Normal University archives in Shanghai, Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing, Jiangsu Provincial Archives in Nanjing, Xiaozhuang Teachers’ School Archives in Nanjing, and Shaanxi Provincial Archives in Xi’an.
1. Libraries and Archives in China
China’s modern library system was established during the Qing reforms at the beginning of the 20th century and enlarged by succeeding governments. Up until the late 1980s, the separate archives system was not centrally organized. Since 1990, there has been a gradual change in the focus of the system from preserving documents to serving the public. However, using the archives during this transitional period is complicated, since many old regulations are still functioning while new rules are on the way. In addition to the complications of the system, there are several other factors affect archival services and their utility. For example, political sensitivity prevents the public from reviewing certain documents; economic reform has led many libraries and archives to struggle for survival by transferring the cost of maintaining facilities to researchers; and academic monopolies prevent researchers from access to some materials which might be used by librarians or archivists for their own research. For foreigners, the accessibility of research documents largely depends on the extent of regional openness and the attitudes of librarians and archivists.
Apart from Beijing and Shanghai libraries, which are located in newly-built buildings with modern equipment, all provincial libraries look shabby, and are crowded. In contrast, all archives, from Beijing to those in the provinces, own new buildings and employ modern technology and equipment. But, compared to libraries, which are open to the general public, archives have more rigid restrictions. I consider the Shanghai Municipal Archives (recently moved to a new location at new location: 326 Xianxia Road, in the northwest of Shanghai.) as the most open and helpful archives in China. Unlike others which provide readers a hand-written catalogue which can only be utilized on site, the Shanghai Archives sells a series of brochures which list all files open to the public. Readers also can buy a guide book, entitled Concise Instruction To Shanghai Municipal Archives, which furnishes detailed information on all documents held by the Archives. In addition, the Archives has a computer system which readers can use to find all files related to their research. Unlike other archives which have many restrictions on making phoptocopies and hand-copying, in the Shanghai Archives, readers can request a copy from almost anything which they are allowed to read. The only exception is for those books which are too old to copy.
2. The Schedule of Chinese Libraries and Archives
For most foreign researchers, schedule is an important thing to watch out for. Most libraries open six days a week from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm and closed on Sunday and holidays, except the Shanghai Library which opens 365 days a year. However, all departments with special collections in all libraries have only five day schedules. Beyond Beijing and Shanghai, provincial libraries have shorter work weeks because they arrange for half a day during the work week to be for "vocational study (ye wu xue xi 業 務 學 習 )" which means that researchers have only four days and a half in a week to do their work. In addition, all archives close half a day out of the five day work week for "political study." For example, the Beijing Archives are open from Monday through Friday, but closed on Wednesday afternoons for "political study" and Friday afternoons for no explicit reason. (According to a staff member of the Beijing Archives, most archival staff live in the suburb and leave at one o’clock Friday afternoon to catch a shuttle.)
Most archives have even shorter opening times and longer lunch breaks. The worst experience I had was in the Beijing Archives and the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing. They open from 8:30 to 11:30 am, and reopen from 1:30 pm (Nanjing Archives reopens at 2:00 pm) to 4:30 pm. During lunch, they totally close the archives, so I had to wander around on the street in the cold for two hours to kill time.
3. The Sensitivity of Research Topics
As most scholars in contemporary China studies have known, there are some kinds of "taboo" research topics, which might have political and religious sensitivity. Most archives in China conceal documents related to these topics.
For example, although the Beijing City Archives (New address: 42 Pu-huang-yu Road, Fengtai District, 100078) has said that it has opened up files produced before the early 1960s, the files from the post-1949 period that have been opened do not include any information on political issues of this period. In the catalogue of the Shanghai Municipal Archives, all documents related to political issues have been excluded from the open files.
East China Normal University in Shanghai is my alma mater. However, the historical materials on the 1950s were still sealed from the public (I attempted to use some "guanxi," but in vain). In the index room of the Archives of East China Normal University, I peeked into the catalogue room for the 1950s, which was full of cabinets and not open to the public, and discovered that they were all related to highly sensitive political issues, such as Anti-Rightist Campaign, the Elimination of Counterrevolutionaries campaign, etc.
Religious affairs might also be a highly sensitive issue. For instance, when I was working in the Hebei Provincial Archives, I witnessed a staff member denying a request from several Hebei county government officials, even though they all had a "letter of introduction (jie shao xin 介 紹 信 )" from the county government. The reason for the denial was that these county officials wanted to examine some religious files. The archival staff told them that they had to go to the provincial Bureau of Religious Affairs to get permission to access the files. Eventually, the archivist learned that the purpose for examining the files was related to a dispute between the county government and a local religious organization over a property. Therefore, these officials were allowed to view the files. According to the staff member, the archives, as a government department, has the responsibility to support the government to win the dispute.
4. About Ordering and Borrowing
For all archives, a Chinese researcher has to show his/her ID plus a letter of introduction from his/her work unit. Foreign researchers (including people from Taiwan, Hong Kong and overseas) have to apply in advance for approval to use archives for their research subjects. The brochure of the Beijing Archives lays out the regulations for foreign researchers, which are basically the same for other archives. The Jiangsu Provincial Archives had stricter rules and my ID and letter of introduction were not enough for them to grant me access to any files after 1949. These files were marked open in the catalogue. They required that I get a transfer of the letter of introduction from Jiangsu Provincial Government since my letter was from a place outside of the province.
Researchers have to define carefully their research subjects because of some restrictions. The first step in archives is to fill out an application in which one has to clearly indicate the subject of his/her research. Once a researcher defines the subject of the research, his/her access to documents is limited to files related to the defined topic. In the Second Historical Archives in Nanjing, since my subject was education and teachers’ schools, they turned down my request to order any files which were not directly related to education and I wasn’t even allowed to read the catalogue for any of those files.
Some books and files might be in the catalogue but unavailable for research. Holding the documents for their own use is one reason for the unavailability of documents. In the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing, all my requests to see files on the activities of Jiangsu Educational Association in the early Republican period were denied because some staff member in the archives was doing research on the same subject, therefore, the materials were not accessible.
5. Copying and Charges
Making copies of materials is merely an issue of money in most libraries but becomes more complicated in archives. In addition to the charge for copying and the "zi liao fei" (資 料 費 ) there are many other "hidden costs," such as consulting fees (zi xun fei 咨 詢 費 ), file ordering fees (diao juan fei 調 卷 費 ) and fees for reading catalogues (mu lu fei 目 錄 費 ), thus triple the cost of copying. For example, the Beijing Archives charges a two yuan consulting fee for each page of an order form, 0.5 yuan file ordering fee for each file (juan 卷 ); the Second Historical Archives of China in Nanjing charges a two yuan consulting fee for each page of the order form, one yuan per volume for reading the catalogue, and three yuan for ordering one file. Moreover, they do not permit researchers to take notes in their own notebooks. One has to buy blank paper from archives at the price of 0.15-0.2 yuan per page. Foreign researchers might be charged an even higher price.
Some provincial archives are willing to negotiate the price of copying as long as researchers do not insist on getting a formal receipt. In Hebei Archives in Shijiazhuang, the staff gave me a 12 percent discount on everything as long as I accepted an informal hand-writing receipt with the red seal of the archives.
However, the biggest problem one faces in archives is the restrictions on making photocopies. All applications for copying have to be approved by the head of the archives or the department which makes the process of copying much longer. Generally, researchers do not get 100 percent of what they request. The Second Historical Archives is one of the least helpful archives; I was only allowed to copy one-third of what I requested. When I complained, the staff told me that I should feel lucky since I got more than what I should get. According to their rules, each visitor is only allowed to copy 10 pages. (The situation used to be better, according to a researcher there. But, because a foreign researcher had used materials to publish something unpleasant about the Chinese government, a new chief of the archives was sent from Beijing and things became much more restricted thereafter.) They had already given me "special treatment" since I was an "insider" with a "letter of introduction." Another problem I confronted at the Second Historical Archives in Nanjing was that the staff held my copy request forms to the last day of my visit. Then they partially denied my request for copying. The staff person suggested that I copy the part denied by hand. Since I did not have time to copy all of them, however, valuable information was left behind in the archives.
Despite these unpleasant experiences, I still think that China’s archives and library systems are improving. I believe that in future they will be more open to China studies scholars both Chinese and foreigners.
The Number 2 Republican Archives, Nanjing.
1. Comments from Liu Lu, UCSD Ph.D. candidate, researching wartime migration to Chongqing; research conducted in 1999 (e-mail: lliu@ucsd.edu.Access: a letter of introduction from some Chinese work unit indicating why it makes sense for you to use #2.
Catalogue: limited access, only those related to your topic. So when asked to write down your topic and intentions, try to make your statement as broad as posssible. Cost: 2 yuan per catalogue.
Photocopying: strict control on the numbers of documents you can copy. Basically, you have to take notes instead of photocopying.
Differentials between Chinese and foreigners: hard to tell from attitude. except for fees.
Fees: for Chinese, 3 yuan per volume (juan) of documents, 0.20 yuan per page of notes, photocopying 0.60 yuan per small page and 1.20 yuan for one big page. For foreigners, probably 3 times these amounts.
2. Comments from Julia Strauss (e-mail: JS11@soas.ac.uk), Department of Political Studies, SOAS. Research on Institutionalization of the Cadre System during the 1950s, with some small amount of follow up collecting on personnel systems in the Republican period. Time of visit: November and December, 1997.
Access: straightforward. Either a letter of introduction from Nanda or the Jiangsu Shekeyuan. People who have worked there before can write ahead and probably get approval without affiliating with a local unit.
Catalogues: strangely, no longer completely open. In the summer of 1995, everything was incredibly open; now the new Guanzhang has tightened up procedures --- refusing any access to the Zhongxuntuan archives, and semi-refusing access to anything that has to do with personnel files. As of late 1997, a number of the larger mulus (such as Caizheng Bu) were a mess: being reorganized and simply unavailable.
Photocopying: mostly easy, and mid range at 3.5Y for foreigners. But some restrictions now in place here: old friends specifically warned me to refrain from submitting any personnel files or evaluation forms for xeroxing (even blank forms). Copying anything you receive is OK; evidently xeroxing no longer is.
Other fees: unbelievably outrageous. Between the summer of 1996 and the fall of 1997, the fee for retrieving a file had rocketed up to 10Y. There is also a high administrative fee for the initial arrangement of access at around 90Y. Even old friends in the reading room were uncharacteristically coy about fees; some seemed rather embarrassed.
Differentials between Chinese nationals and foreigners: foreigners were being asked to pay roughly 3X the rate for Chinese nationals. But given the low wages in China, 3Y per file is astronomically high.
Other Comments: Nanjing in general and the No. 2 Historical Archives in particular, have gone from being one of the most open and happiest places in China to conduct primary research to being one of the most expensive and frustrating. To some extent the Jiangsu Provincial, the Number 2, and even the special Republican era library collection of the Nanjing Municipal library are coordinating with each other to charge high fees across the board, and to particularly overcharge foreigners. Foreign scholars are being especially singled out as cash cows; but the fees at all these places remain prohibitively high for Chinese nationals.
PROVINCIAL AND MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES
Chongqing Municipal Historical Library Archives
Heilongjiang Provincial Archives
Jiangsu Provincial Archives, Nanjing
1. Comments from Neil Diamant, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel. (E-mail: diamant@spirit.tau.ac.il) Research on implementation of the new Marriage Law in the 1950s. Time of visit: 1993-94.
Overall, quite conservative, although the archivists themselves were very cordial and helpful. Initial introduction through the foreign affairs official at CASS. Afterward, any request for material not covered in the initial request form had to be mediated through the CASS waiban. Was allowed to see the catalogue of the records of the Beijing Women’s Federation and Federation of Trade Unions, and then permitted to read and xerox anything related to my topic. However, since there was greater scrutiny for photocopying requests, I preferred to read the documents in the archives’ reading room. Fees were generally three times what Chinese nationals paid.
1.Comments from Gray Tuttle. Harvard University Inner Asian and Altaic Studies Ph.D. candidate, researching Sino-Tibetan educational institutions in Republican China; research conducted in summer, 1999 (e-mail: gtuttle@fas.harvard.edu).
Access: still straightforward. A letter of introduction from a local museum sufficed.
Catalogues: using the published catalogue, I was able to request the more detailed mulu (held in house) of files I wanted. I was given access to all the files I requested.
Photocopying: incredibly easy and fast (I was on a tight schedule). I was permitted to copy everything I wanted.
Differentials between Chinese nationals and foreigners: no one else was using archives at the time.
Other Comments: staff was very helpful, bringing out old issues of the city archives magazine that touched on my topic, accommodating my tight schedule.
2. Comments from Liu Lu, UCSD Ph.D. candidate, researching wartime migration to Chongqing; research conducted in 1999 (e-mail: lliu@ucsd.edu.
Access: easy and open, just show a letter of introduction without ID. No check into the reading room. You can bring anything with you.
Catalogue: great openness. All catalogues are put in a cabinet which readers can take whenever they want, and without payment.
Photocopying: no limit. Copy as many pages as you want. Cost: 0.60 yuan for 1 small page, and 0.80 for 1 big, plus 1 yuan for every page as protection/preservation fee. This is the biggest money one spends in the Chongqing Archives.
Differentials: money. Foreigners pay 3-5 times as much as Chinese. (The prices above are fees I was charged as Chinese.) But one can bargain with them. People there are quite nice.
Fees: 4 yuan each day as service fee (but they give you all the documents you want), 0.50 yuan each page of notes, plus photocopying fee. Besides these, no further charges. No charge on volumes of documents you look at.
Other: much more comfortable than #2. Great openness.
3. Comments from Julia Strauss (e-mail: JS11@soas.ac.uk), Department of Political Studies, SOAS. Research on Institutionalization of the Cadre System during the 1950s, with some small amount of follow up collecting on personnel systems in the Republican period. Time of visit: March 27 - April 2, 1998.
Access: Unusually open. They like to have a letter of introduction, but a letter of introduction from pretty much anywhere will do for the first time (I made initial contact with them via fax, and a simple letter of introduction from CASS in Beijing did fine). After one's first visit, simply writing ahead is enough. The archivists went out of their way to e helpful and welcoming, and to encourage me to spread the word that they were interested in being open and attracting scholars from pretty much anywhere. One didn't even have to present one's credentials at the gate --- one could literally just walk in.
Catalogues: cabinets and cabinets of completely open mulus in the reading room, but all on the Republican period. However, the staff was extremely kind in listening to my requests, and themselves deciding on about ten files from the closed mulus from the Chongqing Bureau of Personnel in the 1950s. Although "only" ten files, the archivists brought out what proved to be an unusually useful batch of ten.
Photocopying: miraculously quick turnaround time (less than 24 hours). The xeroxing fee was on the high side, at 4Y per regular xeroxed page and a 2Y retrieval fee. But I was so delighted to be able to finish on a high note --- that by this point I didn't care.
Differences between treatment of foreigners and Chinese nationals: hard to tell. But probably foreigners pay 3-4X as much.
Other comments: Chongqing was, next to Shanghai, the easiest, most open, most comfortable place to work. Unfortunately they don't appear to hold all that much on the post-1949 period. They do however have an absolutely first rate collection on the Republican period, leaning very heavily towards holdings on the 1940s and state industry during the war years. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the War of Resistance, and/or GMD state involvement in planning and industry.
Chongqing Municipal Historical Library Archives
Comments from Gray Tuttle. Harvard University Inner Asian and Altaic Studies Ph.D. candidate, researching Sino-Tibetan educational institutions in Republican China; research conducted in summer, 1999 (e-mail: gtuttle@fas.harvard.edu.
Access: straightforward. A letter of introduction from a local museum sufficed.
Catalogues: basically open. Staff very helpful in locating relevant material.
Photocopying: expensive, but fairly fast (24hr turn-around). With one important publication I ran into some resistance and in the end was not able to get a copy.
Differentials between Chinese nationals and foreigners: more expensive for foreigners but still expensive for Chinese, who seemed to prefer hand copying.
Other Comments: staff was generally helpful, and the director is interested
in exchanges with foreign scholars.
1. Comments from Julia Strauss (e-mail: JS11@soas.ac.uk), Department of Political Studies, SOAS. Research on Institutionalization of the Cadre System during the 1950s, with some small amount of follow up collecting on personnel systems in the Republican period. Time of visit: March 13-26, 1998.
Contact: Huang Ruijin, Guangdong Dang'an'guan, Hequn Erma Lu, Dongshan Qu, Guangzhou Shi, 510080, tel: 87185579
Access Procedures: in theory easy and open, one can arrange one's own simply by writing ahead and getting approval directly. In practice, they prefer to have a formal letter of introduction from the Guangdong Shekeyuan for the first visit.
Catalogues: the open mulu shelves had open access, but the range of what was included with the open mulus was significantly less than in other archives for the post 1949 period.
Automation: a decent computer system for retrieval was in the process of being set up, but one couldn't do self service.
Photocopying: a real problem. After much discussion of fees (and expressed outrage over the two tiered pricing system), the archivist running the reading room explained that "according to state guiding, foreigners were supposed to pay "something between 3 and 5 times" the amount that Chinese nationals paid", but that there was some discretion. A few days later, he announced that they had decided to unify the fees, and to charge everyone the Chinese price. Unfortunately, whoever was approving the xeroxes simply didn't want to be bothered, and so after a submission for xeroxing of a first set of documents, when I asked about the second set, I was told that there was a xeroxing limit of 15 pages. This so-called limit is probably a flexible thing, and I was under the strong impression it was invented for my benefit after I proved unresponsive to the comment that "I was requesting too much xeroxing". In fact, because the collection was thin for my purposes compared to other places, I requested very little (around 30 pages). It was annoying, to say the least, to not know that there were going to be such strict limits in advance; people going in the future will probably find that they can take all the notes they want but shouldn't plan on being able to make quick trips in and out.
Other fees: none.
Difference in treatment of foreigners and Chinese nationals: now, none.
Other comments: despite the extremely nice reading room staff, in particular Huang Ruijin, who are doing their best to be open and professional, the Guangdong Provincial Archive has a long way to go. In my own case, a disappointing yield relative to the amount of effort expended and distance travelled.
1. Comments from Dr. Li Huaiyin, Assistant Professor of History at University of Missouri, Columbia. They are based on visits to these archives in the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996.
This provincial archives was recently renovated (thus well equipped) and has a very rich collection of local archives, including the archives of several counties of this province that were deemed valuable, such as the archives of Huailu county on which my dissertation was based. Especially valuable are rather complete collections of archives from several local schools (two famous normal schools, two middle schools, and the like).
Heilongjiang Provincial Archives
Nangang Qu, 204 Huayuan Jie, Jiedai Ke, Harbin 150001
1. Comments from Julia Strauss (e-mail: JS11@soas.ac.uk), Department of Political Studies, SOAS. Research on Institutionalization of the Cadre System during the 1950s, with some small amount of follow up collecting on personnel systems in the Republican period. Time of visit: January 6-16, 1998
Access Procedures: unusually quirky and difficult. After writing to let me know that they did have post-1949 archives that they would let me see, it took an unusual amount of effort on the part of the Heilongjiang Shekeyuan to actually get me in the door. They have had experience with only two or so foreigners before, both working on the Republican period, and so seemed unsure how restrictive to be.
Catalogues: after much discussion, they allowed access to the open ones, but refused to allow me to see a variety of documents from the open Catalogues, including curiously, absolutely anything that even came close to being a statistic. (This was explained as reflecting a central guiding on official secrets: obviously an unusual interpretation as in Shanghai and Jiangsu one of the main categories of things permitted was statistics!)
Automation: none.
Photocopying: Much consternation over whether they could permit xeroxing at all, but eventually decided that this was OK. The process was slow, and the approval took until the very last minute in town, however. Photocopying was not terribly expensive per se at 2Y per standard page. However, this was brought up to the level of "moderately expensive" by the extra "conservation fee" of 2Y per volume. Given the low wages in Heilongjiang compared to elsewhere in the country, this was expensive.
Other fees: None for access per se, but a 2Y fee per file retrieved.
Difference between treatment of foreigners and Chinese nationals: the assorted fees per file and per xeroxed page worked out to be between 5 and 6x as much for foreigners. Staff couldn't understand why this frankly open two-tiered pricing system was so enraging.
Final Check-out procedures: Nothing particularly onerous.
Other comments: extremely nice staff that really tried to do their best: clearly caught in the middle between the boss and his interpretation of guiding and the user.
Jiangsu Provincial Archives, Nanjing
1. Comments from Julia Strauss (e-mail: JS11@soas.ac.uk), Department of Political Studies, SOAS. Research on Institutionalization of the Cadre System during the 1950s, with some small amount of follow up collecting on personnel systems in the Republican period. Time of visit: November 18 - December 22, 1997.
Access Procedures: Extremely difficult and variable. This unit has been open to foreign researchers for some years, but they seem unsure about letting you in without a relatively high and formal level of introduction (Nanda and the Jiangsu Shekeyuan are the two most obvious places), even if you visited them in the relatively recent past.
Catalogues: variable and unpredictable. The first time I went, in August, 1996, I was allowed free run of the open mulu room, including post-1949 mulus. Only slightly more than a year later, I had to fight for two days to be accorded the same privilege as the year before. Graduate students, even working on Republican era documents, were forbidden the mulus at all (often places that have closed mulus for the post-1949 period are considerably more relaxed with the pre-1949 documents). Eventually I was allowed to do my own searching and was in fact given most of the files requested, but this was only the beginning of problems.
Automation: none
Photocopying: not outrageously expensive at a standard 3Y per page, but a long turnaround time for first the xeroxing, and then the all important and highly capricious pizhun procedure, which took days and days longer.
Miscellaneous other fees: Obviously, this unit is milking users for all they are worth, and then some. A series of absolutely outrageous fees, probably significantly hiked for foreigners at 6Y to retrieve a file, 9Y to retrieve a microfiche (and there is no way to distinguish the two from the mulus).
Differences in treatment of foreigners and Chinese nationals: certainly not advertised, but I found it hard to believe that Chinese nationals were being asked to pay such exorbitant fees.
Final Check-out procedures: among the worst experienced in China. After xeroxing the requested documents, only roughly one quarter of the xeroxes I requested from the open mulus were approved. Worse, the censorship was incredibly capricious: anything with a proper name was struck out, including letterhead (!) and to and from whom the document was issued. For strange reasons, most of the documents requested for the Jiangnan Administrative Office were not approved, but those from Jiangbei in the same period were. Put another way, when the final fees were calculated, less than a third was in actual xeroxing costs. They might also try to charge for the xeroxes that they don't let you take away.
Other comments: The documents held here are in fact extremely rich and interesting, but I found this an absolutely terrible and frustrating place to work: unpredictable, capricious, and unbelievably unprofessional. People only attempting to take notes might do better, but some researchers have even had problems getting their notes approved for post-1949 topics. Be warned: the Guanzhang is into serious intellectual control, and the ways in which that control is exercised is random.
2. Comments from Neil Diamant, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel. (E-mail: diamant@spirit.tau.ac.il) Research on implementation of the new Marriage Law in the 1950s. Time of visit: 1993-94.
Introduction via the Jiangsu Academy of Social Sciences. Not allowed to see any catalogues. All materials were selected for me by the archivists. Some were fine, other completely irrelevant. Not allowed to take materials (even hand-copied) out of the archive, and my notes were taken from me on more than one occasion. This was by far the most conservative archive I visited. Left after two weeks.
1. Comments from Julia Strauss (e-mail: JS11@soas.ac.uk), Department of Political Studies, SOAS. Research on Institutionalization of the Cadre System during the 1950s, with some small amount of follow up collecting on personnel systems in the Republican period. Time of visit: November 5-16, 1997, December 23, 1997 -January 2, 1998, and December 15 - 28, 1998.
Contact: Shao Qin, Section Chief of Usage Department, Shanghai Municipal Archives, 326 Xianxia Road, Shanghai 200336 Tel: 021-62751700-1217
Access procedures: minimal and extremely easy. A simple letter of introduction from the Shanghai Academy of Social Science (or other known quantity in terms of units) does the trick. As of December, 1998, those who were themselves known quantities who had used the archives before could contact the archives directly prior to arrival in Shanghai, thus bypassing the need to affiliate with a Chinese host unit.
Catalogues: "open" mulus were kept in an unlocked, separate room, one could go in any time to check. Fewer post-1949 mulus are open than pre-1949 mulus, but were certainly worth checking.
Automation: terrific and easy to use computer system to retrieve all open files. One can search by topic, organization, and date.
Photocopying: unbelievably easy, fast, friendly and inexpensive (relative to everywhere else in China). 1.5Y for a standard page, 2.5Y for an outsized page. Typically done in 24 hours.
Miscellaneous other fees: none.
Differences in fees or general treatment of foreigners and Chinese nationals: none discernible.
Final Check-out Procedures: Absolutely no trouble at all with final pizhun; it seems to be a pro forma thing even with moderately sensitive post-1949 documents
Other comments: an unbelievably open and easy place to work. By far and away the hugest amount of research done and materials collected for the least amount of effort.
2. Comments from Neil Diamant, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel. (E-mail: diamant@spirit.tau.ac.il) Research on implementation of the new Marriage Law in the 1950s. Time of visit: 1993-94.
Introduction through the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. Was allowed to see indices of the Shanghai Women’s Federation, whose files were already deemed "open" (according to their own guidebook). After some prodding, I was also allowed to see the catalogues of the East China Political-Legal Committee (Zhengfa weiyuanhui) which covered Shanghai, Anhui, Zhejiang, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces) and the Women’s Federation "suburb-work office." I then selected those files related to my work. At several points I had to request that SASS or other personal contacts intervene on my behalf, not necessarily because the material was particularly sensitive, but rather because no formal decision had been taken regarding the status of the material. Most often the archive committee in charge of this process acceded to my requests. Photocopying was not a problem, and fees were also negotiable.
1. Comments from Dr. Li Huaiyin, Assistant Professor of History at University of Missouri, Columbia. They are based on visits to these archives in the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996.
Sichuan sheng dang'an guan (Sichuan provincial archives): every summer this archives is full of foreign students and scholars, mostly coming to use the Baxian archives. In 1996 when I was there, the Baxian archives of the Republican periods were under repair and not available to users. (I was told that they were using the traditional Chinese mounting technique - biao - to repair the damaged Republican archives; this could be extremely time-consuming.) The Qing-period Baxian archives are available in microfilms and can be purchased in part.
1. Comments from Neil Diamant, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel. (E-mail: diamant@spirit.tau.ac.il) Research on implementation of the new Marriage Law in the 1950s. Time of visit: 1993-94.
Arranged through guanxi: a friend of a friend was a member of the Discipline Inspection Committee of the Province. Archive located in compound of the Provincial government, so the catalogues had to be brought out to the guard booth, where I selected which documents I wanted to read. My selections were generally approved, mainly because the head archivist had just been invited to the US by the National Archives and was feeling good towards Americans and because of the contact on the Discipline Inspection Committee. Since there was no space to read, materials were photocopied and then brought to my hotel room. Because of the inconvenience I only spent a week at this archive. Overall xeroxed some 60 pages, mostly of Provincial Women’s Federation material
Baxian County Archives (also called Chongqing Municipal Banan, District Archives -- Sichuan)
Beijing Municipality: Dongcheng District Archives
Changshu Municipal Archives (Jiangsu)
Chuxiong Prefectural Archives (Yunnan)
Shanghai Municipality: Xuhui District Archives
Wujiang County Archives (Jiangsu)
Xiangshan County Archives (Zhejiang)
Yibing County Archives (Sichuan)
Yixing County Archives (Jiangsu)
Yongchuan Municipal Archives (Sichuan)
Comments from Dr. Li Huaiyin, Assistant Professor of History at University of Missouri, Columbia. They are based on visits to these archives in the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996.
In terms of access to local archives, the situation in recent years has been much improved, as most archives have tended to give priority to profitability against other factors. However, the cost of the improving availability is the often extortionate charge of various fees for using the archives. My experience was that such fees were often flexible, subject to negotiations, especially when you have a large amount of files to reproduce. The best way is to make a lump-sum deal with the supervisor instead of counting pages of photocopies or number of files used. That way, you can save a lot of money. However, in southeastern cities (Jiang-Zhe region), things are often more institutionalized and regularized and the negotiation was quite tough, while in North China cities (such as Shijiazhuang and Huailu where I stayed for a few weeks) as well as in small towns of Sichuan, the chance for a negotiated price is potentially high.
Baxian County Archives (also called Chongqing Municipal Banan, District Archives -- Sichuan)
1. Comments from Dr. Li Huaiyin, Assistant Professor of History at University of Missouri, Columbia. They are based on visits to these archives in the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996.
Although most of the Baxian dang'an were moved to Sichuan sheng dang'an guan in Chengdu, these archives at the county seat of Baxian (30 minutes south of Chongqing) has a decent collection of local archives, again mostly of the late 1930s and 1940s. Impressive is a collection on local anti-drug campaigns.
Beijing Municipality: Dongcheng District Archives
1. Comments from Neil Diamant, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel. (E-mail: diamant@spirit.tau.ac.il) Research on implementation of the new Marriage Law in the 1950s. Time of visit: 1993-94.
Introduction through the CASS waiban, who wrote a very nice letter of introduction explaining my research and where I had already been (Shanghai and the Beijing Municipal). Here I was the first foreigner to conduct research, which proved to be quite advantageous since they were not exactly clear on what materials I was not allowed to see. All of the archivists were extremely friendly (the two I worked with were young--20-21 years old) and helpful. I was allowed to peruse the catalogues of the District Women’s Federation, Federation of Trade Unions, Bureau of Civil Affairs, and District Party Committee, as well as photocopy all reports I deemed important for my research. This was the year of the 1994 World Cup in soccer, so the archivists were more interested in talking about this than the documents I was copying. Since I copied a lot of material, I was able to bargain for a volume discount. Came away with some 400 pages. More recently (1997), visited Dongcheng for a new project on war widows, and materials were also made available.
Changshu Municipal Archives (Jiangsu)
1. Comments from Dr. Li Huaiyin, Assistant Professor of History at University of Missouri, Columbia. They are based on visits to these archives in the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996.
This archives was thus far the best equipped county-level archives I ever visited, representing the fast-growing economy of this city. The archives are stored in a beautiful building, with reading rooms air-conditioned. Good collections on education and local social/political organizations, but not impressively complete.
Chuxiong Prefectural Archives, Yunnan
1. Comments from Neil Diamant, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel. (E-mail: diamant@spirit.tau.ac.il) Research on implementation of the new Marriage Law in the 1950s. Time of visit: 1993-94.
Located in central Yunnan, some 60 km from Kunming. Included materials from 6 surrounding counties. Arranged through guanxi. Archivists ere favorably disposed towards me because I was a student and a foreigner (this was the first time a foreigner visited the archive). Allowed to see all catalogues and photocopy all material related to my topic (basically, anything with the words "marriage," "divorce" or "family" in the title). All materials were approved by the archive director. Photocopied some 1000 pages, including not a few that involved expos廥 of corruption, civil-military relations and wife swapping and polygamy of CCP officials prior to the Cultural Revolution.
1. Comments from Julia Strauss (e-mail: JS11@soas.ac.uk), Department of Political Studies, SOAS. Research on Institutionalization of the Cadre System during the 1950s, with some small amount of follow up collecting on personnel systems in the Republican period. Time of visit: March 13-26, 1998.
Contact: Su Zhijian, Dang'an Baoguan Liyong Chu, 7 Lou, 30 Fazheng Lu, 510046 Tel: 8331630 X 3464
Access: Only semi-open. Access can only be arranged by the Guangdong Shekeyuan, or some other highly placed unit. Even then they were very unsure what to do with a foreigner --- obviously I was quite a novelty. They consulted with the Guangdong Provincial Archives on what they ought to do, and surprisingly ended up by giving me even more open access to the one thing that they determined was within my area ---about 20 files from the municipal personnel department.
Catalogues: the pre-1949 materials were quite open in the reading room itself. The post-1949 materials were significantly more sensi- tive, and it was only after some amount of discussion that I was allowed to see the one mulu from the personnel bureau.
Automation: none
Photocopying: two day turnaround time, and not particularly outrageous fees at either 3 or 4Y per page.
Other fees: None
Difference in treatment of foreigners and Chinese nationals: impossible to gauge --- I was the only person in there!
Other comments: got some interesting things that weren't available anywhere else, but had the sense that if I had stayed longer I would not have gotten much more. Still more or less unprofessional, although not unusually difficult staff.
1. Comments from Julia Strauss (e-mail: JS11@soas.ac.uk), Department of Political Studies, SOAS. Research on Institutionalization of the Cadre System during the 1950s, with some small amount of follow up collecting on personnel systems in the Republican period. Time of visit: early December, 1997.
Access procedures: This archive is only semi-open, and only very rarely has agreed to let foreigners in: it was surprising that a simple phone call from the Jiangsu Shekeyuan Waiban did the trick. However, getting into the building every day is a daily hassle, as the archive is within the gates of the Nanjing Municipal Government, and one had to be met, signed in, and escorted through the gate.
Catalogues: entirely closed.
Automation: none.
Photocopying: in practice, forbidden, although it took three days of polite requests to get this much out of them.
Miscellaneous fees: none.
Final Check-out procedures: a relatively simple process of note checking and pizhun.
Comments: highly unprofessional, archivists basically uninterested in figuring out where things might be, and they certainly won't let you look yourself. Limited gains for a very large amount of effort.
Shanghai Municipality: Xuhui District Archives
1. Comments from Neil Diamant, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Tel Aviv University, Israel. (E-mail: diamant@spirit.tau.ac.il) Research on implementation of the new Marriage Law in the 1950s. Time of visit: 1993-94.
Access: Arrived at the archive after several months at the Shanghai Municipal Archives. Staff was friendly, but the director of the archive was a recently retired army officer, who was quite conservative. Luckily, however, he was generally uninterested in the day-to-day running of the archive, which allowed some leeway to his more open underlings. Allowed to see material only after they received the OK from the Municipal Archives and a letter from SASS, this because I was the first foreigner to conduct research there. Allowed to see the catalogues of the District Party Committee, Women’s Federation and Bureau of Civil Affairs. Also allowed to photocopy. However, before I was given these materials, the archivists blacked out all personal names.
Wujiang County Archives (Jiangsu)
1. Comments from Dr. Li Huaiyin, Assistant Professor of History at University of Missouri, Columbia. They are based on visits to these archives in the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996.
Well equipped and catalogued. Most collections are of the post-1936 period. My impression is that for this period most of the collections are rather complete.
Xiangshan County Archives (Zhejiang)
1. Comments from Dr. Li Huaiyin, Assistant Professor of History at University of Missouri, Columbia. They are based on visits to these archives in the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996.
I was convinced that this archives had one of the most huge and complete collections. To my disappointment, however, almost all of its collection is from the post-1936 period. After spending a few hours completely checking their catalogs I left the coastal town of mainly fishers.
Yibing County Archives (Sichuan)
1. Comments from Dr. Li Huaiyin, Assistant Professor of History at University of Missouri, Columbia. They are based on visits to these archives in the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996.
I stopped by the county seat of Yibing xian (a small yet dynamic town) and stayed a few days at the archives. The building was old and most of the Republican archives (again of the post-1936 years) were not (or poorly) catalogued. I was told that the construction of a new building was planned and the whole old archives were to be completely sorted out.
Yixing County Archives (Jiangsu)
1. Comments from Dr. Li Huaiyin, Assistant Professor of History at University of Missouri, Columbia. They are based on visits to these archives in the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996.
Impressive are local newspapers (carefully repaired) and other kinds of local publications of the Republican period. Other collections, in my memory, are less than satisfactory.
Yongchuan Municipal Archives (Sichuan)
1. Comments from Dr. Li Huaiyin, Assistant Professor of History at University of Missouri, Columbia. They are based on visits to these archives in the summers of 1994, 1995 and 1996.
Between Chengdu and Chongqing there is an express way and the trip takes approximately four hours in total. I stopped by the Yongchuan xian dang'an guan, where most archives belong to the post-1936 period, and are catalogued and well-preserved in a multi-story building. In addition to tons of civil and criminal cases, there are rather complete collections of archives of a couple of local schools which date from early Republican years.
