June 9th this year marks the 19th International Archives Day. Looking at the long river of Chinese cultural heritage, oracle bone inscriptions, bronze inscriptions, bamboo and wooden slips, silk documents... archives in various forms have spanned thousands of years, always bearing mission of preserving history, informing governance, and educating people. Today, archives work serves national strategies and witnesses the development of the new era, having become a public cultural undertaking that connects, serves the present, and is shared by all.

Improving the system and building a solid treasure house of the era's memory—
Currently, China continues to improve the four-level application for archival documentary heritage lists at the provincial, national, Asia-Pacific, and world levels. At present, 18 archival items have been included in the Memory of the World Register,17 items in the Memory of the World Asia-Pacific Regional Register, and six batches of the Chinese Archival Documentary Heritage List have included a total of 250 precious materials.
The archival collection networks at all levels and in all regions are becoming increasingly dense, actively salvaging the imprints of the era and enriching the collection resources. This marks the 105th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the 90th anniversary of the victory of the Long March of the Chinese Workers' Peasants' Red Army. Archival departments in many places along the Long March route, such as Jiangxi, Chongqing, and Sichuan, have concentrated on carrying out the collection of archives, extensively gathering red relics such as revolutionary cultural relics, battlefield letters, and oral historical materials from veterans of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, systematically sorting out the historical of the Long March and inheriting the red genes.
At the same time, the national archival system is actively adapting to the new situation of economic and social development, paying attention to business formats and models, and following up on the archiving and collection of documents and materials in new fields, new carriers, and new forms; optimizing the acceptance scope of archives, the categories of archival collection, and comprehensively recording the new trajectory of economic and social development.
Breaking the Circle and Shining Brightly, Revitalizing the Era with New Vitality—
On this International Archives Day, ancient have found a new way to be opened. The First Historical Archives of China has launched a new "Golden List" themed stamp, which quickly became a popular spot for the public to and check in. The series of stamps are all derived from top treasures in the archives' collection. Among them, the "List" and "Jinshi Jidi" (Passing Imperial Examination) stamps are taken from the Qing Dynasty's Grand Golden List of the Imperial Examination, which is inscribed in the Memory of the World Register. The "First Class, Place" stamp replicates the top scorer's mark on the examination paper of the "Martial Zhuangyuan" (top scholar) in the Guozhu Palace during the Qing Dynasty These small stamps carry a profound cultural heritage, and coinciding with the graduation season, they send beautiful blessings of success in examinations to a large number of students.
Breaking the traditional of static exhibition and passive inquiry, archives departments at all levels and in all regions have created an immersive communication matrix linking online and offline, making the heavy historical materials tangible and touchable Offline, activities such as archives open days, thematic study tours, ideological and political classes, and restoration experiences are being actively carried out, allowing people to touch the pulse of history and the warmth of archives. Online, cloud exhibition halls, popular science short videos, and micro-documentaries are continuously updated, making archives knowledge accessible and learnable anytime and anywhere
The "Qiaopi Archives - Overseas Chinese Silver Letters," which was inscribed in the Memory of the World Register in 2013, preserves a century of overseas Chinese letters and remittance vouchers. The movie "Love Letter to Grandma," created based on the precious "Qiaopi" archives, deeply explores the warm stories and family and national sentiments behindQiaopi," revitalizing static historical materials through the art of film, and allowing dusty archives to step out of the storerooms and into the public eye. Through exhibitions,, cultural and creative products, and study tours, archives have already become a vibrant cultural IP, coming "alive" and becoming "popular" in diverse forms
Digital intelligence empowerment makes archives more beneficial to the people——
Since its launch on July 6, 2022, the National Archives and Utilization Service Platform has connected more than 2,700 archives, effectively solving the problem of cross-regional archive query and utilization for the public, and truly achievingdata traveling more, people traveling less".
Beijing has launched the "Lantai Jinghua" smart archive large model; citizens in Zhangzhou, Fujian can consult livelihood archives such marriage and academic records through the AI butler "Zhangdang AI Lang" launched by the Municipal Archives; the Guangzhou Real Estate Archives has embedded an AI voice assistant into its self-service archive query... The national archive system continues to advance the digital and intelligent transformation of archives, and strengthens the synergy and linkage between archive services and government services.
From the "old piles of" carrying ancient civilizations to the "digital files" recording the new appearance of the era, archives contain both the grand narrative of a great nation's development and the touching warmth everyday life. Every mark of the era will illuminate our journey forward.