The Shanghai Municipal Archives, which houses more than 4.6 million volumes (pieces) of archival historical materials, can be said to be the safe haven of "urban memory". Here, there is such a group of "non-mainstream" young people, who graduated from 985 and 211 famous schools, buried their heads in the "old paper pile", and searched for Shanghai's "urban memory" from land titles, history books, and old photos.
In the past, these young people working in archives often stood behind the scenes and received little attention. But now, they have gradually stepped forward to the front of the stage, pushing content with a reading volume of 100,000+ and live video live broadcasts again and again, so that the public knows them and understands the "Shanghai Story".
Archives Youth "Seeking Change"
"In the past, we mainly compiled some more professional archives and provided them to professional historians. In addition, it is necessary to edit a copy of "Archives of Spring and Autumn", which is a print media. Lu Wentian, a young man in the historical compilation and research department of the Shanghai Municipal Archives, is a lover of historical stories, and like every archival youth, his desk is except for old books, old photos, old materials, and sometimes these things are piled up very high, burying him whole inside.
But recently, Lu Wentian has "changed". He is still buried in the "old paper pile", the difference is that he can always come up with the "100,000+" that young people like. According to the latest requirements of the Shanghai Municipal Archives Bureau, a large number of young people in the Bureau abandoned the state of going it alone, formed a research group according to different interests and hobbies, and told the "Shanghai Story" to a wider range of young people in a way that young people liked.
Lu Wentian's research group is mainly responsible for compiling the series of books "Looking at Shanghai with the Archives". He and his friends found that the public prefers to see pictures more than words, and to watch videos more than pictures. The first volume of the book "Looking at Shanghai with the Archives" is an "atlas", which contains all kinds of precious old pictures and old archives, and the editor uses these pictures and files to tell interesting stories of various landmark buildings in Shanghai.
The new museum of Longyang Road in Pudong, Shanghai Municipal Archives, opened its doors in 2021 with two live broadcasts: one is the live broadcast of the archive exhibition "Jiangshan is the people, the people are the Jiangshan - red treasure file witnesses the road of the Cpc's century-old struggle", and the other is the live broadcast of "City Memory, Time Treasure". The young people in the museum also imitated the practice of the "Readers" program, inviting reading enthusiasts from all fields in Shanghai to recite the story of Shanghai's liberation, and the recitation audio was broadcast in real time on the Shanghai People's Radio.
Bring the historical archives to life
"In fact, dealing with archives is not boring at all, but fun. As long as we edit well, archival stories are just as popular. Lu Wentian and his friends found that the carefully edited WeChat push content about people, food, old roads, old buildings, and old customs was very popular. For example, the article "This emblem restaurant has been opened in Shanghai for 140 years, and one mouth takes you back to your childhood" introduces the past and present life of Shanghai's time-honored restaurant, which is well received by readers.
The reporter saw that the content of this push used the record of "Danfeng Lou" in volume V of the 1930 edition of the "Shanghai Guide", the record of 3 rich restaurants in the 1943 edition of the "Shanghai Special City Wine and Restaurant Industry Association Member Record", and even took out the "Shanghai Wine and Restaurant Industry Association Volunteer Power of Attorney for Joining the Shanghai Wine and Restaurant Industry Association" in December 1945. These materials have not even been preserved in this restaurant.
Not only is the content pushed by the WeChat public account young and storytelled, but now, the entire Shanghai Archives is also full of youthful atmosphere.
Hu Jie, curator of the Shanghai Municipal Archives, is a young and beautiful girl named "Hu Ye" on WeChat. She likes to wear a sassy coat and long skirt, and tell stories to the visiting primary and secondary school students and historians in the "Urban Memory, Time Treasures" exhibition hall on the second floor of the archives. This exhibition, which she co-curated, contains dazzling holograms of Shanghai's urban transformation and many red treasures that are unique in the country.
"This is the record of Chen Duxiu's arrest, you can see the fingerprints of his 4 fingers, and you can also see the clear photos of his face at that time." In the display case where she stopped was a record of Chen Duxiu's arrest in English, the only one in the country, which was stored in the Shanghai Municipal Archives.
Chen Duxiu was arrested five times in his lifetime, three of which were in Shanghai. The fingerprint card of the Shanghai Concession Patrol House records his arrest by the Public Concession Patrol House in October 1932, and the arrest by the French Concession Patrol House in January 1921 and August 1922, and also clearly records the reason for his arrest - the propagation of Bolshevik ideas. Hu Jie told reporters that after the launch of 2021, many young people came to the archives to study for this arrest record. The release of this red treasure file has helped the archives circle a wave of fans.
The "painting style" of the archives has changed
Many young people who came to check the files found that the archives had actually moved a best landscape area with 3 floor-to-ceiling glass for the public to check the files.
This stall area features log-colored furniture, yellow and green cloud sofas, red Chinese side tables, and net red desk lamps in the Golden Pole Green Seat. A graduate student who checked the files here told reporters that he never thought that the archives could have such a "painting style" in the file check area.
In the office area of the archives, a group of young people are nervously restoring the archives. Meng Ye is a master's student majoring in chemistry, and his daily job is to use the "Eighteen Martial Arts" to restore various archives to complete.
On this day, she was repairing an ancient painting that was already full of mold. "Put it in the sink and wash it first, then dry it little by little, sizing it, and re-mount it." Meng Ye told reporters that there is an interesting story behind each file, "I want to try to improve these files as much as possible, so that each story can find multiple detailed rare pictures."
In order to make the archival work more close to the people and grounded, Meng Ye has appeared in the TV news many times as the image of "repairing the archives", "so that the people can read the archives, but also let them understand our work and our love."
The reporter noted that the protection and development of red archives has been highly valued by the Shanghai Municipal Archives Department in recent years. The Shanghai Municipal Archives Department has promoted the formation of a complete, thorough and systematic system to ensure that the protection and utilization of red archives has rules to follow, standardize and orderly.
"On the one hand, we must protect the archives well, on the other hand, we must also let more rare files be known and alive, so that the 'Shanghai Story' is more grounded." Xu Weiwan, director of the Shanghai Municipal Archives, introduced that for young people, the archives also cooperated with the Shanghai Theater Academy to launch the drama "The Big Man in Yuyang", and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music to create a musical drama "Loyalty" based on the history of the "Central Library", and created a series of educational courses such as "Learning Party History with Archives" and "Red City of the People".
China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Wang Yejie Source: China Youth Daily
Source: China Youth Daily client
![Containing the party's original mission, a large number of red archives were photocopied and published in Shanghai[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)