Full Description
The Heritage Turn in China: The Reinvention, Dissemination and Consumption of Heritage focuses on heritage discourse and practice in China today as it has evolved from the 'heritage turn' that can be dated to the 1990s. Using a variety of disciplinary approaches to regionally and topically diverse case studies, the contributors to this edited volume show how particular versions of the past are selected, (re)invented, disseminated and consumed for contemporary purposes. These studies explore how the Chinese state utilises heritage not only for tourism, entertainment, educational and commercial purposes, but also as part of broader political strategies on both the national and international stage. Together, they argue that the Chinese state deploys modes of heritage governance to construct new modernities while strengthening collective national identity in support of both its political legitimacy and its claim to status as an international superpower. The authors also consider ways in which state management of heritage is contested by some stakeholders whose embrace of heritage has a different purpose and meaning.
Contents
Introduction: (Un)Authorised Heritage Discourse and Practice, Carol Ludwig & Linda Walton, SECTION 1. (RE)CONSTRUCTIONS, (RE)INVENTIONS, AND REPRESENTATIONS OF HERITAGE, 1.The Social Life of Heritage-Making: Cultural Representations and Frictions, Florence Graezer Bideau, 2. Confucian Academies and the Materialisation of Cultural Heritage, Linda Walton, 3. From Destruction to Reconstruction: China's Confucian Heritage, Nationalism, and National Identity, Yingjie Guo, 4.Set in Stone: Continuity and Omission in Possessive Representations of the Great Wall, Kristin Bayer, SECTION 2. CREATING IDENTITIES: CONSTRUCTING PASTS, DISSEMINATING HERITAGE, 5.Contemporary Fabrication of Pasts and the Creation of New Identities: Use of 'Open Air Museums/Historical Theme Parks' for Education and Tourism, Carol Ludwig & Yiwen Wang, 6.Creating Cultural Identity in China: Popularizing Archaeological Material and Cultural Heritage, Patrick Wertmann, 7.The Museum as Expression of Local Identity and Place: The Case of Nanjing, Kenny K.K. Ng, SECTION 3. HISTORY, NOSTALGIA AND HERITAGE: URBAN AND RURAL, 8. The Role of History, Nostalgia and Heritage in the Construction and Indigenisation of State-led Political and Economic Identities in Contemporary China, Andrew Law, 9.Local Voices and New Narratives in Xinye Village: The Economy of Nostalgia and Heritage,Marina Svensson, SECTION 4. APPROPRIATIONS AND COMMODIFICATIONS OF ETHNIC HERITAGE, 10.' Even if You Don't Want to Drink, You Still Have to Drink': The Yi and Alcohol in History and Heritage, Joseph Lawson, 11. 'Ethnic Heritage' on the New Frontier: The Idealisation and Commodification of Ethnic 'Otherness' in Xinjiang, Melissa Shani Brown & David O'Brien, Afterword: Historicising and Globalising the Heritage Turn in China, Carol Ludwig & Linda Walton, Index.
