Compared to anthropologist and sociologist, historians have paid relatively less attention to Chinese local society studies. From then on, many historians had devoted themselves to the studies of Chinese Local History as well as been more appreciated the value of local archrivals in their explanation of especially late imperial Chinese history. In this course, first of all, I will introduce scholars’ works on Chinese local society. In order to do so, we will read and discuss some important works by either historians or social scientists to approach the daily life experience of Chinese commoners. Throughout this course, the correlations between Chinese popular religion and local politics will be one of the most important agendas. Finally, depending on students’ language skill, I will pick some local archrival materials, such as local gazetteer, temple history, and inscription, to help students building their own understandings of Chinese local history.