{"title":"Newly constructed ancient towns in China: creating ‘heritage’ in theme parks","authors":"Chujun Wang, Yali Wang, Di Zhao","doi":"10.1080/14766825.2022.2149338","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT China has been experiencing a boom in newly constructed ancient towns (NCAT). Under the influence of recent central policies, requiring heritage activation and cultural revitalisation, NCATs that were viewed as theme parks providing entertaining experiences have become a new type of heritage site. With a case study of Gubei Water Town, it is shown that under the name of revitalising traditional culture, ‘heritage’ is created following the decisions of the tourism developer based on tourist preference. We suggest that themed environments may aggravate the exclusion of local communities and reduce the possibility for bottom-up negotiations in the process of heritage interpretation. Also, the convergence of NCATs and ancient towns may speed up the decline in cultural diversity in China.","PeriodicalId":46712,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14766825.2022.2149338","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT China has been experiencing a boom in newly constructed ancient towns (NCAT). Under the influence of recent central policies, requiring heritage activation and cultural revitalisation, NCATs that were viewed as theme parks providing entertaining experiences have become a new type of heritage site. With a case study of Gubei Water Town, it is shown that under the name of revitalising traditional culture, ‘heritage’ is created following the decisions of the tourism developer based on tourist preference. We suggest that themed environments may aggravate the exclusion of local communities and reduce the possibility for bottom-up negotiations in the process of heritage interpretation. Also, the convergence of NCATs and ancient towns may speed up the decline in cultural diversity in China.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change ( JTCC ) is a peer-reviewed, transdisciplinary and transnational journal. It focuses on critically examining the relationships, tensions, representations, conflicts and possibilities that exist between tourism/travel and culture/cultures in an increasingly complex global context. JTCC provides a forum for debate against the backdrop of local, regional, national and transnational understandings of identity and difference. Economic restructuring, recognitions of the cultural dimension of biodiversity and sustainable development, contests regarding the positive and negative impact of patterns of tourist behaviour on cultural diversity, and transcultural strivings - all provide an important focus for JTCC . Global capitalism, in its myriad forms engages with multiple ''ways of being'', generating new relationships, re-evaluating existing, and challenging ways of knowing and being. Tourists and the tourism industry continue to find inventive ways to commodify, transform, present/re-present and consume material culture. JTCC seeks to widen and deepen understandings of such changing relationships and stimulate critical debate by: -Adopting a multidisciplinary approach -Encouraging deep and critical approaches to policy and practice -Embracing an inclusive definition of culture -Focusing on the concept, processes and meanings of change -Encouraging trans-national/transcultural perspectives