| Abstract: | This essay introduces the Contemporary China Social Life Data and Research Center at Fudan’s School of Social Development and Public Policy and the data the archive has collected. This archive contains data on Lianmin Village in northern Zhejiang Province that provide exceptionally detailed information on economic, political, social, and cultural changes during the period from 1949 to 2000 in China. The archive also collects information on life at the grassroots level, mostly from Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Shanghai, including documents from local government offices and work units. Among the documents collected at the archive, the meeting minutes are especially noteworthy. The archive’s unique collection of private correspondence, personal diaries, and work logs is also enormously valuable to our understanding of contemporary Chinese society. |
