This book offers new approaches and insights into the relationships between heritage tourism and notions of modernity, identity building and sustainable development in China. It demonstrates that the role of the state, politics, institutional arrangements and tradition have a considerable impact on perceptions of these notions. The volume contributes to current debates on tradition and modernity; the study of heritage tourism; the negotiated power between stakeholders in tourism planning and policy-making and the study of China’s society. The approach and findings of the book are of value to those interested in the continuities and changes in Chinese society and to graduate students and researchers in tourism, cultural studies and China studies.
This volume unravels the politics surrounding behind China’s hegemonic project of heritage tourism development in Lijiang. It provides a compelling study of the dialectical relationships between global and domestic capital, the state, tourists and locals as they collude, collaborate and contest one another to ready Lijiang for tourist consumption. Using rich material from insightful interviews and quantitative data, the authors show how complex tourism development can be even as it strives to do good for the community. Su and Teo investigate the practices of contestation and negotiation of identity within Lijiang; analyze the negotiations that transform material and vernacular landscapes; and suggests strategies that will enable sustained tourism interest in this location. Linking Gramsci’s theory on hegemony to the cultural politics of space, this book has two major strengths: it establishes a theoretical framework to conceptualize power relations in tourism space and provides critical insights into the rapidly shifting socio-political landscape of contemporary China. Comparisons with other Chinese heritage sites are also provided. By addressing the power struggles inevitable in the process of tourism development, The Politics of Heritage Tourism in China provides an innovative understanding of China’s dynamic politics in a period of transition. As such, it will address the needs of students and academic scholars working in the fields of China studies, tourism, cultural studies, urban studies, sociology, geography, political science and heritage studies.
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.
There is a World Heritage Craze in China. China claims to have the longest continuous civilization in the world and is seeking recognition from UNESCO. This book explores three dimensions of the UNESCO World Heritage initiative with particular relevance for China: the universal agenda, the national practices, and the local responses. With a sociological lens, this book offers comprehensive insights into World Heritage, as well as China’s deep social, cultural, and political structures.
This book examines how heritage interacts with social-cultural changes and how individuals perform and negotiate their identities through daily practices that include tourism, on the one hand, and the performance of ethnicity on the other.
This monograph analyzes current cultural resource management, archeological heritage management, and exhibitionary practices and policies in the People’s Republic of China. Academic researchers, preservationists, and other interested parties face a range of challenges for the preservation of the material past as rapid economic and social changes continue in China. On the one hand, state-supported development policies often threaten and in some cases lead to the destruction of archeological and cultural sites. Yet state cultural policies also encourage the cultivation of precisely such sites as tourism development resources. This monograph aims to bring the concepts of world heritage sites, national tourism policies, ethnic tourism, and museum display together for a general cultural heritage audience. It focuses on a central issue: the tensions between a wide range of interest groups: cultural anthropologists and archeologists, tourism officials, heritage proponents, economic development proponents, a new class of private rich with the means to buy artifacts, and a fragmented regulatory system. Behind all of them lies the political role of heritage in China, also addressed in this monograph.
Heritage Politics in China: The Power of the Past studies the impact of heritage policies and discourses on the Chinese state and Chinese society. It sheds light on the way Chinese heritage policies have transformed the narratives and cultural practices of the past to serve the interests of the present. As well as reinforcing a collective social identity, heritage in China has served as an instrument of governance and regulation at home and a tool to generate soft power abroad. Drawing on a critical analysis of heritage policies and laws, empirical case studies and interviews with policymakers, practitioners, and local communities, the authors off er a comprehensive perspective on the role that cultural heritage plays in Chinese politics and policy. They argue that heritage-making appropriates international, national, and local values, thereby transforming it into a public good suitable for commercial exploitation. By framing heritage as a site of cooperation, contestation, and negotiation, this book contributes to our understanding of the complex nature of heritage in the rapidly shifting landscape of contemporary China. Heritage Politics in China: The Power of the Past is essential reading for academics, researchers and students in the fi elds of heritage studies, cultural studies, Asian studies, anthropology, tourism and politics.
China is forecast to be the primary tourist destination and tourist-generating country by 2020. However, much of the writing on tourism in China has come from people within the English academic world who are not involved in the issues related to Chinese tourism development. This book provides a voice to Chinese mainland academic researchers and examines the nature of tourism research and tourism development in China. Contributors, many of whom are based in China and are immersed in the daily issues of teaching, researching and planning tourism development within China, discuss issues related to resource use, destination image and community participation with case studies that combine conceptual frameworks and practical issues. This authoritative text on tourism in China will be of interest to scholars and students of tourism throughout the world.
Examine China's impact on the world tourism market! Tourism in China is a comprehensive study of tourism and the travel industry in China--past, present, and future. Since joining many of its Asia-Pacific neighbors in identifying tourism as a vehicle for socioeconomic growth and poverty alleviation, China has become the leader in the Asian travel industry, surpassing all forecasts with high and constant growth in international and domestic tourism activity. In fact, the World Trade Organization predicts that by 2020, China will become the world's leading tourism destination, receiving 145 million visitors. This timely book examines the diverse opportunities and challenges the country's tourism industry faces in meeting those projections. A unique, interdisciplinary guide that appeals to practitioners and academics, Tourism in China has been called “probably the most in-depth analysis of China's tourism industry” by the World Trade Organization's Dr. Harsh Varma. The book presents a collection of articles--scholarly in nature, comprehensive in scope--that serves as a significant (and much-needed) reference on Chinese tourism, though not including minority or border tourism, or the Hong Kong or Taiwan markets. The industry's historical development, its impact on the Chinese economy and ecology, and its current and future markets are examined extensively. Tourism in China also examines: the impressions of Western travelers in China during the 19th century the tourism boom and its development since 1978 the development of ecotourism in China's nature reserves the effect of the tourism boom on the hotel industry the development of theme parks in China. With two-thirds of China's provincial governments committed to making tourism one of their pillar industries, it is essential that tourism professionals, academics, and students around the world have a thorough understanding of this leader in current and future world travel. Tourism in China provides a detailed look at how the country’s tourism industry was built and how it will continue to expand. Helpful tables and figures, as well as a glossary of relevant terms, make the information easy to access and understand.
This innovative study presents a thematic examination of the development of cultural heritage management (CHM) in an Asian context, offering valuable insights into Asian culture and society.
