Heritage across Borders – Conference on Critical Heritage

Abstract

The fourth biennial conference of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies gathered over 800 participants in Hangzhou, China, last August. Earlier, the conference has been organized in Canberra in 2014, in Montreal in 2016, and in Gothenburg in 2012, where the preliminary manifesto of the Association of Critical Heritage Studies was launched. The next conference will be held in London in 2020 with a future-oriented theme. The recent and broad global rise of heritage studies and the heritage industry has been evident in many areas and countries, also crossing borders and frontiers. During the conference, the participants could choose from 520 papers presented in 84 different sessions. In addition to these, there were six keynote or public lectures. Some of the keynote lectures concentrated on special themes, such as juridical questions or cityscapes. Out of these lectures, one in particular stuck in our minds, and not least because the speaker ventured to criticize China. Professor emeritus Nelson H. Graburn spoke about how tourism uses cultural heritage in different countries, and what tourism and indigenous research means for local inhabitants or indigenous people. In his lecture “Minority Empowerment in Tourism and Heritage Research in Multicultural Nations,” Graburn painted a somewhat too positive picture of indigenous tourism in Finland and Scandinavia. He gave several examples of indigenous tourism and research in Europe, America, and Asia, and told that many minority people are doing research in heritage culture or heritage tourism in China. If it really is so, we can only ask. He also touched the question of indigenous art and tourism. According to him, there is still very much to do in the tourism industry, and especially native people bear a huge responsibility in this. His lecture was stimulating, and there was no self-censorship even though he was speaking in China. Another memorable keynote paper, “Critique a Heritage: The Cultural Significance of Dispute and its Implications for Heritage Research,” was given by professor Michael Herzfeld. According to him, those who work with heritage issues have the possibility to raise questions concerning heritage and its safeguarding from the point of view of local people. They have the power and also the responsibility not to use heritage in creating fake reality. However,