Cultural Heritage Politics in China

This book covers China's cultural heritage ideology and policies, examining the State and World Heritage tourism, heritage tourism at undesignated sites and cultural politics of museums. Case studies discuss ethnic and scenic tourism, site management and more.

This volume explores China's cultural heritage ideology and policies from three interrelated perspectives: the State and World Heritage tourism; cultural heritage tourism at undesignated sites, and the cultural politics of museums and collections. Something of a cultural heritage designation craze is happening in China. This is new within even the last five to ten years. Officials at many levels now see heritage preservation as a means for commoditizing their regions. They are devoting new resources and attention to national and international heritage designations. Thus, addressing cultural heritage politics in a nation dedicated to designation is an important project, particularly in the context of a rapidly growing economy. This volume is also important because it addresses a very wide range of cultural heritage, providing an excellent sample of case studies: historic vernacular urban environments, ethnic tourism, scenic tourism, pilgrimage as tourism, tourism and economic development, museums, border heritage, underwater remains, and the actual governance and management of the sites. This volume is an outstanding introduction to cultural heritage issues in China while contributing to Chinese studies for those with greater knowledge of the area.

PART I: INTRODUCTION
 
1. Cultural Heritage Politics in China: An Introduction
Helaine Silverman and Tami Blumenfield
 
2.  Does the Institution of Property Rights Matter to Heritage Preservation? Evidence from China <i/>
TANG Zijun
 
PART II: Local, Regional, National and International Interests in a World Heritage Era
 
3. Chinese Cosmopolitanism (tianxia he shijie zhuyi) in China's Heritage Tourism <i/>
Margaret Byrne Swain
 
4. Groping for Stones to Cross the River: Governing Heritage in Emei
Yujie ZHU and Na LI
 
5. Local versus National Interests in the Promotion and Management of a Heritage Site. A Case Study from Zhejiang Province, China <b/>
Wei ZHAO
 
6. Tourism, Migration and the Politics of Built Heritage in Lijiang, China
Xiaobo SU 
 
7.  Dancing in the Market: Reconfiguring Commerce and Heritage in Lijiang <i/>
Heather Peters
 
PART III: CULTURAL HERITAGE AND TOURISM IN UNDESIGNATED SITES
 
8.  Good Fences Make Good Neighbors: Claiming Heritage in the Longji Terraced Fields Scenic Area <b/>
Jenny T. CHIO
 
9. Re-constructing Cultural Heritage and Imagining Wa Primitiveness in the China/Myanmar Borderlands <i/>
LIU Tzu-kai


PART IV: THE POLITICS OF MUSEUMS AND COLLECTIONS
 
10.   Beijing's Museums in the Context of the 2008 Olympics
Curtis Ashton <i/>
 
11.  Community Empowerment at the Periphery? Participatory Approaches to Heritage Protection in Guizhou, China <i/>
William Nitzky
 
PART V: ROUTES AS HERITAGE - BRANDING SPACE IN A GLOBAL[IZED] CHINA
 
12.  The Ancient Tea Horse Road and the Politics of Heritage in Southwest China: Regional Identity in the Context of a Rising China <i/>
Gary Sigley <i/>
 
13.   Branding Tengchong: Globalization, Road Building and Spatial Reconfigurations in Yunnan, Southwest China
ZHOU Yongming
 
14.  The Role of Underwater Archaeology in Framing and Facilitating the Chinese National Strategic Agenda
Jeff Adams
 
PART VI.  AFTERWORD
 
15.   China's Tangled Web of Heritage <i/>
Stevan Harrell <b/>