Consuming the Past in Contemporary East Asia: An Introduction

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Sonia Lam-Knott completed her doctoral studies in Anthropology at the University of Oxford, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore. Her research explores the interplay between politics, space, and history in Asian cities, and the impact this has on vernacular experiences of urban life. Of particular interest are the existing and emergent state-society power dynamics, urban contestations and grassrootsactivism, along with the politics of remembrance and nostalgia in contemporary Hong Kong. Her works have been published in Asian Anthropology, Urban Studies, and in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 For example, South Korea introduced the Cultural Heritage Protection Act in 1962; Japan had a series of legislation to preserve cultural buildings and artefacts since the Meiji Restoration in the 1870s, which led to the development of the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties in 1950; the PRC incorporated heritage into its constitution in 1982; Taiwan implemented their Cultural Heritage Preservation Act in 1982; and Hong Kong launched the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance in 1972.

2 See announcements by Hong Kong’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Office (https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/ICHO/en_US/web/icho/home.html); Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture (https://www.moc.gov.tw/en/information_196_75166.html); and Macao’s Cultural Affairs Bureau (http://www.culturalheritage.mo/en/detail/2264).

3 As of the writing of this paper, the PRC has 55 UNESCO World Heritage Sites; South Korea 14; Japan 23; Mongolia 5; and North Korea 2. More are currently under consideration. Taiwan’s attempts to have their sites listed are hindered by their ambiguous political status under the UN.