Welcome to People's Letters

People's Letters is a digital archive dedicated to preserving and contextualizing the voices of ordinary Chinese people who produced written records, especially correspondence with the state during the People's Republic of China, with a focus on the Mao era (1949–1976). Through private writings, petitions, complaints, requests, and appeals, these letters reveal how everyday individuals understood their world, including their frustrations, hopes, and struggles during one of the most consequential periods in modern Chinese history. Alongside these letters, the archive includes official government documents related to the handling of correspondence, illuminating state–society relations from both perspectives and offering scholars an intimate, ground-level view of life in the PRC, particularly under Mao.