![Sample our Museum and Heritage Studies journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5945/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Museum-Heritage-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
China has been experiencing a boom in newly constructed ancient towns (NCAT). Under the influence of recent central policies, requiring heritage activation and cultural revitalisation, NCATs that were viewed as theme parks providing entertaining experiences have become a new type of heritage site. With a case study of Gubei Water Town, it is shown that under the name of revitalising traditional culture, ‘heritage’ is created following the decisions of the tourism developer based on tourist preference. We suggest that themed environments may aggravate the exclusion of local communities and reduce the possibility for bottom-up negotiations in the process of heritage interpretation. Also, the convergence of NCATs and ancient towns may speed up the decline in cultural diversity in China.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Chujun Wang
Chujun Wang is a PhD candidate at Graduate School of International Media, Communication, and Tourism Studies, Hokkaido University, Japan. She is interested in heritage tourism and political tourism in China.
Yali Wang
Yali Wang is a professor of Geography and Tourism at Hunan University of Art and Science, China. He has a PhD in Urban Planning at Hunan Normal University, China. His work focuses on tourism geography, cultural tourism, and authenticity.
Di Zhao
Di Zhao is a lecturer at Hunan University of Art and Science, China. He has a PhD in Geography Information System at China University of Mining and Technology, China.