Cultural heritage as a socio-cultural construct: a contextualised trajectory in China

The intangible turn in cultural heritage studies over the last three decades has featured a growing recognition of socio-cultural constructivism. In responding to the constructivist approach, the paper extends the discussion of cultural heritage in the context of China from joint comparative and evolutionary perspectives. On the one hand, by situating the reception of the cultural heritage concept from a socio-cultural construct dimension, the paper reveals the unique dialogism between the two divergent epistemological and methodological paradigms of wenwu (cultural relics) and wenhua yichan (cultural heritage) that underline the appropriation and practice of cultural heritage in China, and implicates the issue over authenticity in the debate of heritage tourism, heritage conservation and urban development. On the other hand, the Chinese experience promotes the dual mission of constructivism as both a socio-cultural and a discursive enterprise. A cross-cultural dimension is added as to see if the East-West difference in conceptualisation is mutually influenced, in a hope to enrich cultural heritage studies in its content as well as its global understanding