The dilemma between innovation and authenticity in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage
Community agency in preserving Suzhou pingtan
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3838604 |
|---|---|
| Authors | H Miao (0000-0003-3925-1248, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 323-345 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | China Information (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0920-203X • E-ISSN: 1741-590X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0920203x241290652 |
| OpenAlex | W4404082625 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 20 |
In safeguarding an intangible cultural heritage (ICH), the community is often considered passive and only part of the policy implementation system. While acknowledging the lack of a connection with contemporary audiences in many examples of ICH, such as pingtan (评弹), authenticity-seeking is still a widely accepted goal in safeguarding ICH. But from an authenticity-seeking perspective, attempts to create innovative pingtan are often the target of criticism. This article observes that amid the competing narratives of pursuing authenticity and embracing innovative experimentation, preservation of and innovation in pingtan have developed to disentangle pingtan from a unified conceptualization. Conflicts about preservation and innovation are the enabling forces that allow diverse cultural ideas to be communicated, leading to interactions and experimentation that defy easy definition. Analysis of the contradictions behind an insistence on an authentic form of pingtan suggests that authenticity-seeking is more about cultural anxieties over the changing identity of a city, with pingtan as a tool for such negotiations. This article calls for a more nuanced understanding of community agency in safeguarding ICH. Innovative practices to safeguard ICH may also challenge the concept of community, resulting in fluid, developmental, and mutually sustaining interactions
Agency (philosophy · Business · Cultural heritage · Dilemma · Intangible cultural heritage · Political science · Safeguarding · Social science · Sociology · Conservation Techniques and Studies · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Law · Medicine · Museums and Cultural Heritage
Marxism and literature
The Cultural Politics of Emotion
Global media studies
Hybridity, or the Cultural Logic of Globalization
Tradition, cultures and communities
Managing intangible cultural heritage in the context of tourism
How Does Superstition Become Intangible Cultural Heritage in Postsocialist China
China’s emerging legislative and policy framework for safeguarding intangible cultural heritage
Shifting Actors and Power Relations
Clarifying the critical in critical heritage studies
Between Business and Bureaucrats
Hybridity in Cultural Globalization
Intangible cultural heritage in contemporary China
Cultural feelings and the making of meaning
From socialist ideology to cultural heritage
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |