Maags, C. orcid.org/0000-0001-5849-2536 (2021) Cultural heritage politics in China. In: Shei, C. and Wei, W., (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Studies. Routledge , pp. 177-190. ISBN 9780367181390
Abstract
Understanding cultural heritage politics in China means to grasp the multiple ways in which the Party-state employs the Chinese past to achieve its objectives in the present. Since 1978, ‘cultural heritage’ has been ‘revitalized’ and become a resource for the pursuit of various state political, economic, and social objectives. This chapter inquires into the reasons, processes, and effects of the ‘revitalization’ of Chinese cultural heritage by conducting a comparative case study of ‘intangible cultural heritage’ (ICH) protection on the ground – in urban Nanjing and rural Lancang County. I argue that the Party-state has adopted a heritage regime to revitalize China’s cultural heritage to enhance its political legitimacy. This heritage regime allows the Party-state to gain control of interpreting and exploiting the Chinese past at the expense of local communities. While, on the one hand, China’s cultural heritage has thus been ‘revitalized’ – allowing Chinese people to reconnect with the past which was cast aside during the early 20th century – it, on the other hand, however, enables the Party-state to exploit this process to the extent of offsetting the positive gains made by this cultural revitalization process.
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of East Asian Studies (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 24 Nov 2022 11:19 |
Last Modified: | 24 Nov 2022 11:19 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Routledge |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.4324/9780429059704-15 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:193533 |