Comparing landscape values and heritage stakeholders: a case study of West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou, China

ABSTRACT

In the World Heritage nomination process, the UNESCO World Heritage Programme has historically privileged the discourse of international experts and downplayed that of stakeholders. Taking West Lake Cultural Landscape of Hangzhou as an example, this paper compares and analyses the perspectives expressed by international experts, Chinese heritage professionals, local residents and domestic tourists. In the World Heritage nomination and evaluation processes for West Lake undertaken between 2007 and 2011, international experts did not appear to fully comprehend the values articulated by Chinese authorities due to the differences between Chinese and Western cultural histories, philosophies and heritage value systems. The discourse of tourists and local residents, on the other hand, not only engaged with the traditional and contemporary Chinese cultural values embodied in West Lake, but also linked them to personal emotions, experiences and memories, thereby constructing diverse expressions of social value. The case example supports the position that the nomination of World Heritage sites take into account the knowledge and experience of all stakeholders, especially with regard to constructions and justifications of heritage value.

KEYWORDS:

• West Lake Cultural Landscape
• stakeholders
• culturally diverse value systems
• heritage discourse
• world heritage

Acknowledgments

This paper is part of the result of ongoing ICOMOS-IUCN collaborative project entitled ‘Culture Nature Journey’.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. The Cairns Decision is a resolution made at the 24th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Cairns, Australia, in 2000.

2. For the justifications for listing of these properties, see (UNESCO 1996, 2009).

3. A designation inclusive of cultural and natural values.

4. In using ‘Chinese perspectives’ and ‘Chinese worldviews’, we are not implying that there is a single perspective across China, but rather that Confucian, Tao and Buddhist belief systems generate commonalities across geographically diverse communities and regions.

5. A transnational nomination by China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

6. Tea ceremonies conducted by Buddhist Zen masters as a practice of Zen and enlightenment.

7. The study of seals and their systems undertaken in order to provide insight into the art of seal carving, the history expressed by the seal, changes in the official system, identification of documents, and the authenticity of calligraphy and painting.

8. Lin Bu (AD 967–1028), a famous reclusive poet in the Northern Song Dynasty

9. Yue Fei (AD 1103–1142), a military man, strategist, Chinese national hero, calligrapher, and poet of the Southern Song Dynasty

10. In World Heritage terms, a ‘core area’ consists of elements that embody the outstanding universal value of a World Heritage site, and elements that embody the integrity and authenticity of that site; while a ‘buffer zone’ is an area surrounding the World Heritage ‘core area’ that gives an added layer of protection to the site.

11. Hangzhou is one of the most developed regions in China with residents generally highly educated.

12. Xiling Seal Engravers Society, founded in 1904, is a folk art group with a long history in the study of stone seal carving, calligraphy and painting in China.

13. The Book of Tea (published around AD 758), is the earliest, most complete and comprehensive monograph on tea in China, known as the encyclopedia of tea, written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the [National Natural Science Foundation of China] under Grant Number [51908295]; and the [Shenzhen University’s Newly Introduced Teachers’ Research Initiation Project].

Notes on contributors

Rouran Zhang

Rouran Zhang is an associate professor and Vice Director of Department of Landscape Architecture in School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shenzhen University, China. He is the Vice President of ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Scientific Committee. He holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Cross-Cultural Research from the Centre of Heritage and Museum Studies, Australian National University. He is the author of Chinese Heritage Sites and Their Audiences: the Power of the Past (2020), published by Routledge.

Steve Brown

Steve Brown is a senior research fellow on the ‘Everyday Heritage’ project at the University of Canberra, Australia. He is a co-editor of Object Stories: Artifacts and Archaeologists (2015), Cultural and Spiritual Significance of Nature in Protected Areas (2018), and a forthcoming Routledge Handbook on Cultural Landscape Practice. Steve is the immediate past-President (2014-2017) of the ICOMOS/IFLA International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes and a member of the IUCN-WCPA Specialist Groups on the Cultural and Spiritual Values of Protected Areas and on Protected Landscapes/Seascapes.