For Whom to Conserve Intangible Cultural Heritage : The Dislocated Agency of Folk Belief Practitioners and the Reproduction of Local Culture (Chinese Folklore Studies : Toward Disciplinary Maturity)

Abstract

Folk beliefs about Great Yu and Emperor Shun in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, are of great significance in the local area. Two rituals recently named Reverence for Yu the Great and the Emperor Shun Temple Festival respectively have been recognized by the state as intangible cultural heritage (ICH). This recognition has become another driving force to simultaneously revive and objectify local culture in support of China’s rising tourism industry. During this process, when folk beliefs at the grassroots level are transformed into the objects of the state ICH movement, regional governments replace folk groups as the main, official bodies that regulate and represent these folk beliefs. Folk groups lose their rights to the social and economic values of these cultural resources. In this context, the displaced agency of folk groups leads to the redistribution of economic resources and the restructuring of their power relations. Thus, this article aims to explore a fundamental question regarding the ICH-driven process of cultural reconstruction: for whom we should conserve ICH?