Ever since Chinese President Xi Jinping came into office in 2012, he has stressed the value of tangible and intangible cultural heritage more than any of his predecessors. During various conferences and meetings, Xi has articulated that cultural heritage is essential to the spirit of the Chinese nation (Zhonghua minzu) and should be integrated into the political project of rejuvenating Chinese culture. Meanwhile, heritage preservation has become a big business in Chinese cities. The incentives behind this business are complicated. In 2006, the State Council placed 518 intangible cultural heritage (ICH) items on the first round of lists. In its notification, the State Council proclaimed that “the preservation and use of ICH is significant to promoting China's cultural tradition, enhancing ethnic unity and national unification, consolidating national confidence and integrity, and prompting the construction of socialist spiritual civilization” (https://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2006/content_334718.htm). By every measure, the social, economic and political value of ICH cannot be underestimated in China.
Junjie Su's new book, Intangible Cultural Heritage and Tourism in China: A Critical Approach, offers a detailed analysis of how ICH is recognized and produced in the context of tourism development in China. The case study is Lijiang, a highly popular tourist destination known for Naxi ethnic culture and located in Yunnan province. The book examines various forms of ICH, and considers the perspectives of government officials, scholarly experts, and local practitioners and community members. This analysis of multiple perspectives is a key contribution to understanding the complicated and even conflicting meanings of ICH. Tensions between the protection of heritage and the commodification of tourism provide another key agenda in the book. Based on the author's doctoral dissertation, the analysis captures rich texture from his Lijiang fieldwork in the early 2010s and relies on participant observation and in-depth interviews.
The book opens by introducing the ICH movement in China and articulates similarities and differences between the Chinese government and UNESCO regarding the definition and content of ICH. In chapter two, the author narrates a cultural approach to ICH. Drawing on a critical turn in tourism and heritage studies, Su proposes “a practitioners-based approach to review the subjective discourses and practices of ICH practitioners who perform their ICH in the context of tourism” (p. 20). This approach places practitioners at the centre of analysis, showing that ICH can be embodied in their navigation between preservation and commodification. In addition, the author explains four key terms: authenticity, commodification, integrity and continuity, all of which are important to understanding the transformation of cultural heritage.
Chapter three sets up the context by introducing ICH preservation and related tourism activities in China. Here, the author provides meticulous details about regulations, ordinances and incentives related to ICH in China. Chapter four narrows the focus to heritage and tourism in Lijiang to elaborate a local geographical context in which Naxi ICH was historically made. Ever since the Old Town of Lijiang was designated as a World Cultural Heritage site in 1996, international and domestic tourists have visited it for new experiences. Tourist money also dramatically changes ICH in Lijiang. Chapter five focuses on the area's typical cultural items, including Dongba culture, Naxi folk music, handicraft and culinary skills. Here, the author paints an interesting picture of how various groups of people participate in the transformation of these cultural items and for what purposes. The following three chapters explain key components of cultural heritage, with a focus on authenticity, commodification/integrity and, finally, continuity and transmission. To conclude, chapter nine summarizes key findings in the book and explores the divergence between official management and daily management of ICH.
Su's book provides a valuable contribution to the study of China's ICH through a wealth of empirical data. It also highlights the Chinese state's deep involvement in transforming ICH toward certain goals, although this transformation might be less dramatic than the demolition movements during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). The empirical chapters exemplify the complexity of ICH in the case of Lijiang, showing the difficult relationship among authenticity, commodification, integrity and continuity.
The book would have benefited from three further improvements. First, the main fieldwork conducted in 2013 and 2014 does not capture the transformation of Lijiang's ICH during the COVID-19 pandemic and afterwards. Since the author is based in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan, necessary updates should have been readily available. Second, the book would benefit from a more solid theoretical framework to guide the analysis of the empirical data. Emphasis on a critical discourse approach to heritage needs stronger glue to hold together commodification, authenticity, integrity and continuity. Finally, the analysis, largely confined to the case of Lijiang, offers inadequate dialogue with the literature on the politics of cultural heritage in China as well as the ongoing movement of heritage-driven cultural rejuvenation in China. Nor are we told how the case of Lijiang sheds new light on critical heritage studies.
The politicization of cultural heritage remains essential to the construction and maintenance of cultural hegemony in many countries, and China is no exception. Indeed, Xi Jinping has remained proactive in promoting the protection and use of cultural heritage in China. The points left unaddressed by the book open promising avenues for future critical scholarship on the politicization of cultural heritage in China and beyond. In this sense, this book is a valuable contribution to existing work on China's cultural transformation.
