From National Register to Memory of the World: The Construction and Experience of China’s Nomination System for Archival Documentary Heritage —An Institutional Analysis Based on the Measures for the Declaration and Administration of the China Register of Archival Documentary Heritage

Abstract

Enforced on January 1, 2026, the Measures for the Declaration and Administration of the China Register of Archival Documentary Heritage (hereinafter referred to as the “Measures”) establishes, for the first time in the form of a departmental regulation, the legal status of the China Register of Archival Documentary Heritage as the “national reserve project database” for the Memory of the World Register. This marks a new stage in the institutionalization and standardization of China’s nomination work for archival documentary heritage. From the perspective of the modernization of the archival governance system, this paper systematically combs the evolutionary process of China’s participation in the Memory of the World Programme, elaborates on the core essentials and institutional innovations of the Measures, and analyzes the linkage mechanism of the four-level register system: provincial, national, Asia-Pacific, and international. On this basis, combined with typical nomination cases, it summarizes China’s practical experience in the value excavation, text construction, and resource integration of archival documentary heritage, aiming to provide theoretical support and practical directions for the protection, inheritance, and international communication of archival documentary heritage in the new era.