The politics of heritage and place-making in Tanmen, China

Abstract

Heritage is both embroiled in, and constituted by, complex, intertwined and contradictory processes. Using ethnographic research, the paper illustrates how heritage-making driven by the Authorised Heritage Discourse (AHD) intersects with socio-spatial and economic processes of place-making in China. The findings reveal the complex, entangled relationship between heritage and place in which elite and non-elite groups participate and interact. Local heritage of Tanmen is active, power-laden and intersects with political, social and economic affairs and expectations, not least to support Chinese sovereignty claims over the South China Sea. This analysis reveals the interplay in Chinese top-down and bottom-up heritage-making processes, in which elite groups tend to dominate by means of ICH policies and local residents tend to internalise the AHD in an attempt to reap benefits or reputation from it. The paper argues that there is a mutually reinforcing relationship between the nation-state and the local in the heritagisation process of local heritage, that works to add a scenario to the multifaceted relationship between places at different scales in heritage literature. Politically charged heritage-making processes, including re-narrativisation, commercialisation and reworking memories, are explored in terms of their impact and intersection with the local place regarding issues of identity, memory, economy and the street landscape. Overall, this paper provides a case study that seeks to understand a specific version of the AHD that reflects Chinese policies, ideologies and aspirations. It aims to reveal the intersection of heritage-making with place-making, to help comprehend the complex, intwined concepts of heritage, power and place in a non-Western society.