Heritage as Aid and Diplomacy in Asia

355 Pages·2020·5.412 MB·English

by  Philippe Peycam (editor), Shu-Li Wang (editor), Hui Yew-Foong (editor), Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao (editor)

The ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute (formerly Institute of Southeast Asian Studies)
is an autonomous organization established in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated
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First published in Singapore in 2020 by
ISEAS Publishing
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ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Peycam, Philippe, editor. | Wang, Shu-Li, editor. | Hui Yew-Foong, editor.
| Hsiao, Hsin-Huang Michael, editor.
Title: Heritage as aid and diplomacy in Asia / edited by Philippe Peycam, Shu-Li
Wang, Hui Yew-Foong and Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao.
Description: Singapore : ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, 2020. | Includes bibliographical
references.
Identifiers: ISBN 9789814881159 (paperback) | 9789814881166 (PDF) | 9789814881609
(epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Asia—Cultural policy. | Cultural property—Conservation and
restoration—Government policy—Asia. | Historic preservation—Government
policy—Asia. | Economic assistance—Asia—Case studies. | National interest—
Asia. | Asia—Politics and government. | Cultural diplomacy—Asia.
Classification: LCC DS12 H54
Typeset by Superskill Graphics Pte Ltd
Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd
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Contents
Contributors vii
1. Heritage as Aid and Diplomacy in Asia: An Introduction 1
Shu-Li Wang, Philippe Peycam, Hui Yew-Foong and
Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao
2. World Heritage and WikiLeaks: Territory, Trade and Temples
on the Thai-Cambodian Border 17
Lynn Meskell
3. Heritage Making – Aid For Whom? The Genealogy of
Expert Reports in the Hands of Politics and Their Impact
in the Case of Preah Vihear 52
Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin
4. The International Coordinating Committee for Angkor:
A World Heritage Site as an Arena of Competition,
Connivance and State(s) Legitimation 78
Philippe Peycam
5. Legacies of Cultural Philanthropy in Asia 117
Mary S. Zurbuchen
6. To Help or Make Chaos? An Ethnography of Dutch Expertise
in Postcolonial Indonesia 143
Lauren Yapp
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vi Contents
7. Heritage Conservation as a Tool for Cultural Diplomacy:
Implications for the Sino-Japanese Relationship 167
Victor Chi-Ming Chan
8. From Ideological Alliance to Identity Clash: The Historical
Origin of the Sino-Korean Goguryeo Controversies 190
Anran Wang
9. Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology in
Afghanistan: A Case Study of Bamiyan 226
J. Eva Meharry
10. Disappearing Voices: The Politics and Practice of Safeguarding
Kunqu Opera in the People’s Republic of China 254
Min Yen Ong
11. Neoliberalizing Heritage: International Agencies and the
Local Dynamics of Heritage Conservation in Bali, Indonesia 278
Agung Wardana
12. Heritage Conservation as Trickle-Down Development 305
Jayde Lin Roberts
Index 329
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Contributors
Victor C.M. CHAN is Assistant Professor, Department of Social Science,
the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong.
Brigitta HAUSER-SCHÄUBLIN is Professor Emerita of Anthropology,
Göttingen University, Germany.
Hsin-Huang Michael HSIAO is Adjunct Research Fellow, Institute of
Sociology, Academia Sinica, and Chair Professor of Hakka Studies, National
Central University, Taiwan.
Yew-Foong HUI is Associate Professor, Department of Sociology,
Hong Kong Shue Yan University; and Visiting Senior Fellow, ISEAS – Yusof
Ishak Institute.
J. Eva MEHARRY is a Doctoral Candidate in the Cambridge Heritage
Research Centre, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge,
Jesus College.
Lynn MESKELL is the Shirley R. and Leonard W. Ely, Jr Professor of
Humanities and Sciences in the Department of Anthropology, Stanford
University and A.D. White Professor-at-large at Cornell University.
Min Yen ONG is a Teaching Associate in the Faculty of Music, University
of Cambridge; Bye-Fellow at Murray Edwards College; and Research
Associate at Darwin College, University of Cambridge.
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viii Contributors
Philippe PEYCAM is Director, International Institute for Asian Studies.
Jayde Lin ROBERTS is Senior Lecturer, Architecture and Urbanism in
Asia, Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW Sydney.
Anran WANG is a Doctoral Candidate in History, Cornell University.
Shu-Li WANG is Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of Ethnology,
Academia Sinica.
Agung WARDANA holds a teaching position at the Faculty of Law,
Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia.
Lauren YAPP is a Postdoctoral Fellow in International Humanities at
Brown University.
Mary ZURBUCHEN was a Ford Foundation Program Officer and Regional
Representative in both South and Southeast Asia, and is now Senior Advisor
to the Henry Luce Foundation in New York.
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1
Heritage as Aid and Diplomacy
in Asia: An Introduction
Shu-Li Wang, Philippe Peycam, Hui Yew-Foong
and Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao
In spite of a growing academic interest in the politics of heritage in Asia, few
studies have directly questioned the role of international and transnational
cooperation in heritage conservation. First, even though the literature has
widely addressed the role of the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a powerful disseminator of
international standards of conservation (e.g., Askew 2010; Daly and Winter
2012; Labadi 2010, 2013a; Logan 2001), it has not yet tackled the impact of
UNESCO’s normative discourse on other cultural policy agents. Secondly,
the social sciences have largely neglected other international structures
such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, the
European Union, USAid, the Asian Development Bank and many others
that have their own engagements in the conservation of heritage in Asia.
These organizations often collaborate with UNESCO or participate in
bilateral or multilateral initiatives by providing funding and “expertise”
in the management of sites. The IMF, for instance, played an important
role in the establishment of the International Coordinating Committee
of the World Heritage Site (hereafter WHS) of Angkor under the aegis
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2 Wang, Peycam, Hui and Hsiao
of UNESCO. Many of these initiatives are carried out by states’ cultural
diplomacies in often well-thought-out strategies. Pioneer countries in
cultural diplomacy include France, Italy and the Netherlands, but also
India and Japan. Today, most Asian states are also engaging in cultural
diplomacy. In the last two decades, China, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam
and Indonesia have considerably strengthened their investments in
regional “heritage cooperation”. Some of them, like India or Japan, have
a long history of cultural international intervention (Ray 2012). Thirdly,
private “philanthropic” programmes like the Ford Foundation, the Agha
Khan Foundation, the World Monuments Fund and the Getty Trust have
long had a major impact on the management of heritage in Asia. They
are now joined by newly established Asia-based foundations such as
Korea’s Samsung Foundation. Finally, new connections have recently been
drawn between market-driven “development” schemes explicitly linking
“culture” and “economic opportunities” as part of the global capital-
driven developmentalist discourse, as when WHS become mass tourism
destinations incorporated in national economic development schemes
(Labadi and Logan 2016). This new model of “cultural-capitalism” is fast
becoming prominent, as is the global campaign of systematic digitization of
library collections by the multinational Google, “responsible capitalism”, or
micro-credit schemes. These essentially capitalist constructions collaborate
with state-sponsored cultural heritage structures, including UNESCO, as
well as with elite-originated private cultural philanthropy.
In Asia, historical colonial legacies and postcolonial negotiations
of these experiences have inflected the heritage discourse in dynamic
ways (cf. Logan 2001, 2016; Huang and Lee 2018). The relative shortage
of historical, sociological, political and ethnographic research on these
multiple incarnations of “Heritage as Aid or as Diplomacy” in Asia is
all the more surprising when we consider how cultural and heritage
management represents a major area of international cooperation as well
as a powerful instrument of “soft power” by states, corporate forces and
social elites. These national, international, transnational state and non-state
agents are prolific producers of knowledge on heritage. Often following
the theoretical (and sometimes ideological) avenues set by UNESCO and
its different state proponents, they provide thoughtful historical and
philosophical legitimating arguments in favour of the idea of heritage
as aid. When confronted with local situations, however, they may offer
alternative approaches to the dominant discourses. Their interactions with
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