Heritagization of disaster ruins and ethnic culture in China
Recovery plans after the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7707927 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Katiana Le Mentec (Centre for Modern and Contemporary Chinese Studies, France), Qiaoyun Zhang (0000-0001-8072-5973, International Institute for Asian Studies, The Netherlands) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 349-370 |
| Publication date | 2017-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | China Information (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0920-203X • E-ISSN: 1741-590X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0920203x17736508 |
| OpenAlex | W2768037350 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 12 |
| References cited | 11 |
This article discusses state-led heritagization processes in Beichuan and Wenchuan Counties, two Qiang ethnic minority areas severely affected by the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake (China). Certain destroyed landscapes were preserved and turned into earthquake relic sites. In particular, the former Beichuan County seat was entirely heritagized for memorial, economic, and patriotic education purposes, causing an emotional conflict with locals still affected by loss and trauma. At the same time, Qiang cultural practices were hastily registered as national and international intangible cultural heritage, while reconstructed Qiang villages were transformed into heritage tourism destinations. These initiatives tend to reshape Qiang culture elements into fetishized commodities. Allocating massive funds to historically marginalized regions, these post-disaster heritagization programmes aimed at boosting economic recovery, as well as demonstrating state power, national unity and solidarity. Implemented using a top–down method, they appear insensitive to the affected population’s trauma and the sociohistorical context from which the newly heritagized elements originate. The disaster and Qiang culture heritage tourism not only failed to bring about sustainable economic development to the earthquake-stricken areas, but also ignored to a large extent the initial goal of ‘post-disaster cultural recovery’ and the virtues of cultural heritage in recovery processes
Archaeology · China · Context (archaeology · Cultural heritage · Economic growth · Economy · Ethnic group · Geography · Political science · Population · Sociology · Solidarity · Tourism · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Disaster Management and Resilience · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies · History · Law
The heritagisation of rituals
Ruination and the Production of Space in Contemporary China
Material traces and affective resonance in disaster memory
Representing Recovery
Heritage safeguarding as a method
Entrepreneurs of the National Past
Cultural Reproduction
Museums of themselves
Heritagization of religious sites
The politics of spectrality in earthquake ruins
Ruins for the future
Revealing the Differences in Regional Potential Emergency Capability and Emergency Performance
| Unique citing works | 12 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2,4 |
| Citation span | 2021 - 2026 (6) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 12 |