Sourcing the Grassroots: New Methods and Unconventional Sources in PRC History

The Columbia University Weatherhead East Asian Institute will host a workshop that seeks to familiarize researchers with local and unconventional and sources that reveal Maoist society at the margins. The impetus for the workshop follows the work of recent PRC scholars such as Jeremy Brown, Michael Schoenhals, Yang Kuisong and others, who have turned to “grassroots sources” (also known as 垃圾资料) as a complementary archive.

The Columbia University Weatherhead East Asian Institute will host a workshop that seeks to familiarize researchers with local and unconventional and sources that reveal Maoist society at the margins. The impetus for the workshop follows the work of recent PRC scholars such as Jeremy Brown, Michael Schoenhals, Yang Kuisong and others, who have turned to “grassroots sources” (also known as 垃圾资料) as a complementary archive. These sources have enabled a recent historiographical shift away from state-centered narratives in favor of new approaches to issues such as social classification, petty crime, local religion, and medical practices from the vantage point of everyday life. As you are all no doubt aware, restrictions on historical research in Chinese archives have continued to tighten over the past few years, and I would suggest that use of grassroots sources has already become a commonplace if not necessary aspect of work in our field.