Openness and Fluidity of Place: A Practical Dilemma for Ecomuseums in China

Abstract

Compared to traditional museums, ecomuseums encompass community, heritage and a cultural landscape, transforming a place into an in situ museum. When employed as a cultural tool or heritage project, ecomuseums are dedicated to representing local distinctiveness and strengthening a sense of place. What happens when the intentions are such, but the development practice for ecomuseums is inherently fraught with challenges? This article reveals that in China, ecomuseum projects intending to develop a sense of place and local participation encounter practical dilemmas from their particular methodology and practical processes. Through the perspectives of both an insider developer participant and an outsider anthropologist, we describe and analyse two cases from China: Bai Yang Po, located in Shanxi province, and You Tian, in Zhejiang province. These two case studies reveal that ecomuseum principles, site selection and project implementation in China do not correspond with local populations’ sense of place. Using participant observation, questionnaires and semi-structured interview data, we argue that extra-local scholar and government-led directives establish distinct physical boundaries for ecomuseum projects that do not follow the logic of local people’s lives, nor their relationships with each other and with their environment. In this paper we present two key concepts—openness of place and fluidity of place—and in connecting them with our case studies, illustrate how a sense of place that transcends physical boundaries can be viable for ecomuseum projects in China.

Keywords:

• ecomuseum
• place
• sense of place
• cultural landscape
• China

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kai Yin

Kai Yin is an Associate Professor of Museology at Shandong University and specialises in museum anthropology, ecomuseums and heritage studies. Since 2012 he has been involved in the ecomuseum movement in China; he completed his PhD in Anthropology at the Minzu University of China in 2016. Over the last five years, he has published more than 40 academic articles in journals such as The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice, Southeast Culture, Journal of Museum and Culture, National Arts, Chinese Museum. His first book, Ecomuseum: Thought, Theory and Practice, was published in 2019 in Chinese and his next book, Museums and Public: Reinventing Museums from the Perspective of Public, will be published in 2022.

William Nitzky

William Nitzky is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Museum Studies at California State University, Chico and serves as the Director of the Valene L. Smith Museum of Anthropology. He completed his PhD in Anthropology at Arizona State University in 2014 and specialises in contemporary ethnic China, new museology and tourism and heritage studies. Since 2006 he has studied the rise in museum development, the ecomuseum movement and heritage politics in China, and has served as a research consultant on several ecomuseum projects. He is the producer of the documentary Stories in Thread and made his directorial debut with the film Bang the Drum. He has published academic articles and chapters in English and Chinese in Museum International, Chinese Museum, Urban Anthropology, Senri Ethnological Studies, Cultural Heritage Politics in China and Asian Ethnology.