Dancing with the state: the emergence and survival of community archives in mainland China

ABSTRACT Based on ethnographic fieldwork on community archives in mainland China, this article identifies three models of community archives in mainland China, and reveals reasons for the emergence and survival of community-based archives in mainland China: first, the regulations on non-governmental museums and social organisations can provide the legal basis for the emergence and survival of community-based archives despite the fact that the archival legislative framework, the centralised archives management system and the dominant statist archival paradigm seem to leave little room for their emergence and development; second, the purposes of establishing community-based archives can be consistent with or not contradictory to the political, social and cultural development strategies of the state; third, the relationship of contingent symbiosis between government and community archives can create spaces for the emergence and survival of community-based archives.