In Paper Knowledge: Toward a Media History of Documents, Lisa Geitelman asks “what is a document? Bibliographers and other information specialists have persisted in puzzling over this question for at least the last hundred years.” Today on the Internet, there are more than 23 million texts that might provide an answer, given that they contain (or so Google tells me) the phrase “A document is…”. When I checked, I found to my surprise that one relevant internet text that does not is the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency’s Terms & Definitions of Interest. It does not define “document” – merely “document exploitation,” “document and media exploitation,” and “Harmony.” As a historian, my editorial policy here at Document of the Month will be to adopt a similar robust Don’t Ask Don’t Tell-position with respect to “What is a document?” If you see it scanned and commented on here, it’s a document.
Document of the Month is curated by Michael Schoenhals.
December 2016
Detoxification of the body politic: post-Lin Biao language matters
中央人民广播电台有关宣传口径的一次会议精神传达记录(1971年12月)
November 2016
When physical labor was still on the curriculum
“劳动是必修课”!——复旦大学外国留学生《守则》、《考勤制度》、《生活制度》等(1975年)
October 2016
“Pissed and lost for words!” – Doorway couplets from Shanghai (1966)
September 2016
Do you have many contacts, among the lumberjacks?
July/August 2016
He did time for what he did: A CIA translator’s prison release papers
北京市第十劳动改造管教队的一份《释放案犯呈请批示表》(1968年)
June 2016
More on Mao badges: Documenting a non-event
May 2016
Shanghai forty years ago: If you remember “experiencing the Cultural Revolution,” you really weren’t there!
A report to the DAAD: “Über Studium und Leben an der Fudan Universität in Shanghai” (September 1976)
April 2016
Confucius say… Dictatorship is good thing!
《人民公安》信箱:“什么叫‘专政’?”(1965年9月30日)
March 2016
A Harbin postal inspector’s copy of a young midwife’s letter (September 1949)
哈尔滨市公安局治安处第一科邮电检查股 邮登第2062号(简抄)件
February 2016
An affair to remember? Consenting adults in the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park
《我和XXX的关系》- 江苏省南京第二建筑工程公司“五反”运动中的一份交待材料(1964年)
January 2016
Bo Diddley was right: you can’t judge a book by the cover!
陕西省西乡县样河公社李家沟大队社教工作组汇编的《西乡方言》(1965年)
December 2015
When the night has come and the land is dark: Will the police stand by Mao’s revolution?
中华人民共和国公安部《关于保卫无产阶级文化大革命运动的通知》
(1966年6月10日)
November 2015
Back to the Future: Categorical Watchlisting in China (1959)
October 2015
Deceiving Deng: A Potemkin Village in Anhui (1960)
September 2015
Beijing August 1958 – Hot town, summer in the city!
August 2015
New in the neighborhood? A 1952 residency transfer form for a ”person of interest”
June 2015
China historian goes off-message on torture: ”Did anyone here recognize that?”
May 2015
He raped me! A Nanjing contract worker speaks out (1972).
April 2015
Aluminum and Mao badges wholesale: four receipts from the Cultural Revolution (1967–68)
March 2015
“It’s Chairman Mao on the phone!” – The rise and fall of an imposter
山西省委政法办公室关于政治骗子赵保春的报告(1961年7月24日)(摘要)
February 2015
Document Authentication 101 – Spot the Forgery!
西南局公安部1950年7月编印的业务参考材料之六:《文书检查》
January 2015
Earlier, everything was better. The earlier the better. (1963)
海城县人民委员会1963年《关于民用棉布、絮棉定量发放的通知》
December 2014
Christmas in Nanjing 1970: If you see something, comrades, say something!
November 2014
“I got me a secret membership card…”: Talkin’ May 16th Paranoid Blues (1972)
疑点百出的“清查”文献:一张“自愿加入‘五•一六’兵团申请表”
October 2014
Losing Mao: A Shanghai Customs Notice from 1976
September 2014
Police, Press, and Public Relations: Hu Qiaomu Talks (1955)
胡乔木讲话《在公安工作上怎样把公开的文字宣传做得更好一些?》(记录稿)
August 2014
A French Diplomat’s Beijing Diary (1965–1967):
Annie Le Cage’s Turbulence in a Clear Sky
July 2014
Banned in Beijing: A 1950s Index of Politically Incorrect Picture-Story Books
《北京市处理反动、淫秽、荒诞图书第一批书目(草案)乙、连环画》
June 2014
Stealing Other People’s Mail: the KGB in Beijing (1973)
北京市邮政局、北京市公安局军管会《关于确保邮政信箱安全的通知》
May 2014
Who’s that Girl: Documenting an event of no particular significance (1968)
中国人民解放军北京市公安局军事管制委员会海淀分局的一份
《查找走失幼女家长通报》
April 2014
Counter-Revolutionary Cacography: Samples from Shanghai (1972)
上海市杨浦区公检法领导小组转发的《九起反革命案件罪证字迹材料》
March 2014
What Is to Be Done? A Note from the Communist Underground (1961)
中国共产主义研究小组”的纲领性文件《我们的方针和任务》
February 2014
When Form Is Content: A 1954 CCP Document about the Design of Documents
中共南京市委办公厅关于执行《中共江苏省委办公厅关于〈中共中央办公厅关于规定党内文件的纸形与格式等问题的通知〉的通知》的通知