Locally situated rights and the ‘doing’ of responsibility for heritage conservation and tourism development at the cultural landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, China

Abstract

This study examines the understandings and practices of responsibility for heritage conservation and heritage tourism from a multiple-stakeholder perspective at the Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces, a unique World Heritage Site in China. Data were mainly collected via participant observations and semi-structured interviews. Local villagers comprised of ethnic minorities are conserving the heritage landscape in this protected heritage site through their traditional agricultural production and integrated religious and cultural practices. Conflict has arisen over the years due to inequities between the responsibilities they assume to maintain the cultural landscape and their ability to acquire compensation and share tourism’s benefits. Other stakeholders (e.g., local government, the state-owned tourism enterprise, hostel operators) have benefited greatly from tourism to this area, but have not shared the responsibilities of actually maintaining the heritage landscape. The findings also show that an emphasis on the material heritage and technical approach towards the conservation of the heritage landscape by local authorities exacerbate the conflicts as the roles and needs of the local residents are not recognized. The study suggests that heritage responsibility discourses and practices justify and reinforce systematic unequal power relations between local community residents and the state at the Cultural Landscape of Honghe Hani Rice Terraces. The villagers play the greatest role in sustaining the cultural landscapes for current and future generations of Chinese citizens and visitors, yet experience numerous restrictions and impediments in the process. This study reveals complex relationships between the “doing” of responsibilities through local cultural practices of the Hani ethnic minority and their “rights,” both of which are situated locally and socially constructed.

Keywords:

• China
• cultural landscapes
• ethnic minority
• heritage tourism
• responsibilities
• rights
• World Heritage Sites

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the anonymous reviews for their constructive feedback on earlier drafts of this paper, and Prof.Tazim Jamal for her very helpful and impressive editing.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 https://responsibletourismpartnership.org/cape-town-declaration-on-responsible-tourism/.

2 https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1111/.

3 https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1111/.

4 Guanxi refers to Chinese-style social connections and reciprocal relations (Siriphon, 2015).

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to express their gratitude for the National Science Foundation of China (project serial number: 41471122; 41901162) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (project serial number: 2019M653260) for supporting the research .

Notes on contributors

Jun Gao

Dr. Jun Gao is a postdoctoral research fellow of School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China, his research interest including border tourism and heritage tourism.

Hongxia Lin

Miss Hongxia Lin is a doctoral student of School of Business Administration, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China, her research interest including tourist behavior and heritage tourism.

Chaozhi Zhang

Dr. Chaozhi Zhang is professor of School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, China, and he is the corresponding author of the research, his research interest including heritage tourism and destination management.