Grassroots Values and Local Cultural Heritage in China

291 Pages·2021·3.283 MB·English

by  Harriet Evans, Michael Rowlands

Grassroots Values
and Local Cultural
Heritage in China

Grassroots Values
and Local Cultural
Heritage in China
Edited by Harriet Evans
and Michael Rowlands
LEXINGTON BOOKS
Lanham • Boulder • New York • London
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Evans, Harriet, editor. | Rowlands, M. J., editor.
Title: Grassroots values and local cultural heritage in China / edited by
Harriet Evans and Michael Rowlands.
Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, [2021] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021020474 (print) | LCCN 2021020475 (ebook) | ISBN
9781793632739 (cloth) | ISBN 9781793632746 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Cultural property—Protection—China—Citizen
participation. | Local history. | Nationalism and historiography—China.
| China—Civilization–2002- | China—Social life and customs—2002- |
China—Historiography.
Classification: LCC DS779.43 .G84 2021 (print) | LCC DS779.43 (ebook) |
DDC 363.6/90951—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020474
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021020475
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
Contents
Contents
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Grassroots Values: Issues, Questions and
Perspectives on Local Heritage 1
Harriet Evans and Michael Rowlands
1 What and Whose is Local Heritage? Perspectives from
Everyday Lives in an “Old Beijing” Neighborhood 17
Harriet Evans
2 Encountering Virginia Woolf in Dashalar: Heritage Quests
and Local Efficacies 37
Beverley Butler
3 Rediscovering “Huangshan” in a Heritage Context:
Spatial Strategy and Invisible Locality 69
Luo Pan
4 “Slave(s)” to the Great Museum: Heritage, Labor and
Ethics in the Jianchuan Museum Complex 91
Zhang Lisheng
5 Between State and Local Residents: Heritage Perspectives
and Their Combination in Quanzhou, Southern Fujian 115
Stephan Feuchtwang
6 Naming the Living Heritage in Quanzhou 133
Michael Rowlands
v
vi Contents
7 Commitments to the Past: Cultural Transmission in
a Naxi Village 159
Peter Guangpei Ran
8 Threads of Time in a Small Naxi Village: Women, Weaving
and Gendered Dimensions of Local Cultural Heritage 183
Harriet Evans
9 Destruction, Devastation and Reinvented Tradition in
Heritage Construction in Dukezong, Shangri-La 209
Wu Yinling
10 From “Cultural Relics” to “Sacred Objects”:
A Case Study of Local Heritage Protection in a Tibetan
Buddhist Monastery 231
He Beili
Afterword 255
Wang Mingming
Index 271
About the Contributors 279
Figures
Figures
Figure 0.1. A map of the locations and respective chapter
numbers of the field sites in this book,
courtesy of Haina Zhou 2
Figure 1.1. Entering a “big cluttered courtyard,”
courtesy of Jia Yong 20
Figure 1.2. Inside a big cluttered courtyard, 2009, author’s photo 27
Figure 2.1. Postcard from Chen Ke Exhibition,
2011, author’s photo 57
Figure 2.2. Busts of Virginia Woolf and Rabindranath Tagore in
Bloomsbury, London, courtesy of David Francis 64
Figure 3.1. Hui style village, author’s photo 70
Figure 3.2. Liyang in the Lane: a complex with old Huizhou
and modern styles, author’s photo 83
Figure 3.3. Drum dancers of both genders, author’s photo 86
Figure 4.1. Cast-iron arch at the entrance of the Jianchuan
Museum Complex, author’s photo 93
Figure 4.2. Builders working on the early JMC museums in 2005,
courtesy of the Jianchuan Museum Complex 100
Figure 4.3. Fan’s comments on Vice-Director Yuan’s April 2014
work report, author’s photo 105
vii
viii Figures
Figure 6.1 Map of Quanzhou with Jubao Chengnan indicated.
Quanzhou South Street Print made by Quanzhou
Engineer Bureau, 1922 135
Figure 6.2. Ideal image of Quanzhou in the 19th century—
Quanzhou as Venice of the East, author’s photo 137
Figure 6.3. Visitors to the Fumei Temple, author’s photo 153
Figure 7.1. A view of Zheba Valley, author’s photo 163
Figure 7.2. Papermaking, photo by Harriet Evans 167
Figure 7.3. Sacred spring well, author’s photo 174
Figure 8.1. Men preparing the pig for cooking for the funeral
banquet, October 2014, author’s photo 186
Figure 8.2. Naxi women setting up temporary looms for
filming, author’s photo 196
Figure 9.1. Dukezong surrounded by the county town of
Shangri-La, author’s photo 209
Figure 9.2. Tibetan Scriptures Hall, Dukezong, author’s photo 211
Figure 9.3. Turtle Mountain Park, by Moonlight Plaza,
Dukezong, author’s photo 217
Figure 10.1. Panorama of the Samye Monastery, author’s photo 234
Figure 10.2. A “Like Me” statue of the Lotus Master created
during the Tubo period, author’s photo 240
Figure 10.3. Monks performing the purifying rite during the
consecration ceremony, author’s photo 244
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
This book has traveled a long, meandering and sometimes troublesome jour-
ney from its early beginnings in 2011, involving many twists and turns and
comings and goings. That it is finally being published is due to the support of
many individuals and institutions.
We first want to acknowledge our immense gratitude to the Leverhulme
Trust for funding the ethnographic research on which this volume is based,
and for their patience in enabling us to change the design of the project when
our own circumstances so required. We also thank the British Academy and
the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for supporting the establishment of
a research network under the Co-reach Scheme in 2010–2011, which estab-
lished the foundations for the subsequent Leverhulme Project.
There are many individuals who in different ways have contributed to
discussions that now take shape in this volume: Daniel Abramson, Bao
Jiang, Paul Basu, He Shangli, Paul Kendall, Erik Mueggler, Edwin Schmitt,
Sun Jing, Marina Svensson, Tang Yun, Wang Cangbai, Wang Shuli, Weng
Naiqun, Nancy Xiong, Zhang Yuan, and Zhu Yujie. Special thanks go to
Professor Yang Zhengwen, director of the Anthropology Institute of the
Southwestern University for Nationalities, Chengdu, for generously hosting
an initial workshop in 2013.
We have greatly benefited from Professor Wang Mingming’s insights and
support in contributing to the planning of this project, and particularly in his
willingness to involve members of his PhD cohort in what became an inspired
joint research program. He also gave advice in deciding on the sequencing
of the chapters in this volume. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Zhang
Lisheng, without whose patient and diligent contribution to translating, edit-
ing and formatting, this volume would not have seen the light of day. We also
ix