Understanding visitors’ leisure benefits and heritage meaning-making: a case study of Liangzhu Culture Museum

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to extend understanding of visitors’ leisure benefits in relation to their meaning-making of heritage through qualitative interviews conducted at Liangzhu Culture Museum (an archaeological world heritage site in Hangzhou, China). Semi-structured interview with 68 museum visitors was conducted to explore their personal, contextual, and interactive interpretations of leisure and heritage meaning-making. The study found four main types of leisure benefits gained from visiting this museum: recreation; learning and education; relationship enhancement; and affection towards the community. It showed that the perceived leisure benefits of some visitors aligned with the museum’s officially represented heritage meaning and value; while those of others were intimately linked to their personal memories, collective identities, and sense of place. This study contributes to a better understanding of heritage museum visitation as a leisure activity; visitors’ perceptions of the meaning of leisure in the Chinese heritage museum context; and the link between visitors’ heritage meaning-making and their leisure experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• Leisure benefits
• heritage-meaning making
• Liangzhu Culture Museum

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank anonymous reviewers and editors for their constructive comments. We also would like to thank all the visitors and local residents the authors interviewed. Moreover, this work was supported by Higher Level Incubation Project in Zhejiang International Studies University Under Grant Number [No. 2016G01], Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation Under Grant Number [LY19D010013]; and Zhejiang Provincial Philosophy and Social Sciences Planning Project Under Grant Number [18NDJC16YB].

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

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

Notes

1. Data retrieved from http://www.chyxx.com/industry/202006/876181.html on 25 October 2020.

2. see http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1592.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Higher Level Incubation Project in Zhejiang International Studies University (2016G01) to Doctor ZHANG Yingchun, and by Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation (No. LY19D010013) to Prof. LIU Huimei.

Notes on contributors

Yingchun Zhang

Yingchu Zhang, PhD. (orcid.org/0000-0003-2777-9635) is an associate professor of School of English Studies, Zhejiang International Studies University. Her research includes both cultural heritage & leisure studies and heritage education.

Huimei Liu

Huimei Liu Ph.D (orcid.org/0000-0002-6565-7762) is a professor of the Asia Pacific Centre for the Education and Study of Leisure, Zhejiang University, and Institute of Cross Cultural and Regional Studies, Zhejiang University, China. Her major research interests are cross cultural leisure studies.