Abstract
Heritage governance plays an essential role in conservation, planning, as well as inscribing World Heritage. In China, the government maintains its regulatory legitimacy of heritage resources while pursuing the goals of national integration and economic growth. By examining the development of UNESCO World Heritage Site Mt. Emei, this chapter aims to explore the process of heritage governance and the politics of the heritage campaign in transitional China. It argues that Emei developed its governance trajectory from the integration and negotiation between political rules, social norms, and cultural values made more complicated by a commercially constructed tourism development discourse.
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- 1.
All the names of interviewees appearing in this chapter are pseudonyms.
- 2.
Some international institutions like the OECD and the World Trade Organization are active in advising policy recommendations that emphasize competition, transparency, and accountability for “good governance.”
- 3.
The 1998 administrative reform, mainly the government-restructuring program, was firmly pushed by the pragmatic reformer Premier Zhu Rongji. It sought to streamline administrative structure and separate government from enterprise. The 2003 administrative reform was graded as the second batch of the 1998 reform, which aimed to promote the bureaucratic coherence by reducing institutional conflicts of interests. Although the substantial progress of these two administrative reforms was not fully achieved from the perspectives of some critics, the previously fragmented authority of the state on social and economic issues came to be integrated as a result (Yang 2004; Yeo 2007).
- 4.
Non-majoritarian institutions are defined as those governmental entities that (a) possess and exercise some grant of specialized public authority, separate from that of other institutions, but (b) are neither directly elected by the people, nor directly managed by elected officials (Thatcher and Sweet 2002).
- 5.
The Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area, located about 30 km away from Mount Emei, is notable, with its Giant Buddha Statue as the largest carved stone Buddha in the world. Due to the similarity of both sites, local governments decided to combine them for the world heritage nomination. Since both sites are administratively located in two different cities, each site developed its own heritage agency separately supervised by their own government after the inscription was successful. This chapter focuses on the heritage governance of Emei.
- 6.
In 2008, the Emei Heritage Committee and the Leshan Heritage Committee (for Leshan Giant Buddha Scenic Area) merged to one committee for better planning and management of these two sites. The main purpose of this merge is streamlining and downsizing. The administrative mechanism and procedure have not been significantly changed. Hence, in this chapter, we use EMC to refer to the regulatory agency even it changed the name after 2008.
- 7.
This General Plan includes specialized plans such as the Plan for Conservation and Management of Emei Wild Animals and Plants (emei yesheng dongwu he zhibei baohu guanli guihua 峨眉野生动物和植被保护管理规划), the Plan for Conservation and Management of Emei Cultural Relics and Ancient Buildings (emei wenwu gujianzhu baohu guanli guihua 峨眉文物古建筑保护管理规划), and the Plan for Emei Fire Control (emei huozai kongzhi guihua 峨眉火灾控制规划). These plans are subject to related laws and legal instruments including the Regulations of Scenic Areas (fengjing mingshengqu tiaoli 风景名胜区条例), the Forest Law (senlinfa 森林法), the Law of Environmental Protection (huanjing baohufa 环境保护法) and the Law for Protection of Cultural Relics (wenwu baohufa 文物保护法).
- 8.
Mr. Xu called it a “restoration” although in fact it was a “reconstruction”. As a heritage official on heritage conservation, he does not carefully deal with the terms that crucially impact on the nature of the conservation work. Indeed, the term “restoration” is better for propaganda making for heritage conservation.
- 9.
This term first appeared in the Article 21 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics (guojia wenwu baohufa 国家文物保护法). The article suggests “keeping the cultural relics in their original state.” The Chinese version is “bugaibian wenwu yuanzhuang 不改变文物原状,” which literally means, “do not change the original state of cultural relics.”
- 10.
Article 22 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics (guojia wenwu baohufa 国家文物保护法) states that, “Where immovable cultural relics are totally damaged, the ruins shall be protected and the damaged relics may not be rebuilt on the original site.” However, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage may be asked for consent, “where under special circumstances it is necessary to have such relics rebuilt on the original site.” In case a rebuilding of a major site that is protected at the national level is suggested, “the matter shall be submitted by the People’s government of the relevant province, autonomous region, or municipality directly under the Central Government to the State Council for approval.”
- 11.
Chinese laws prohibit local governments from directly obtaining bank loans or secured loans. This is the main reason that EMC established the state-affiliated tourism corporation.
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Zhu, Y., Li, N. (2013). Groping for Stones to Cross the River: Governing Heritage in Emei. In: Blumenfield, T., Silverman, H. (eds) Cultural Heritage Politics in China. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6874-5_4
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