|
2024-2025 Colloquium Series
Reconfigured Pasts: China’s Heritage through History
Yujie Zhu, Associate Professor
Center for Heritage and Museum Studies
Australian National University
Friday, February 14, 4PM-6PM PDT
Hosted on Zoom: [click here] *
*There is no password needed to join this meeting.
However, please ensure that you are logged into your Zoom account
before clicking on the meeting link.
Abstract
The art of collecting, reproducing, and reinterpreting the past has long shaped cultural
identity, political legitimacy, and tourism imaginaries in China. But who drives these ongoing
processes of reconfigured pasts? What methods do they use? And how do these practices
shape not only heritage but also contemporary experiences of place and cultural memory?
This talk, based on my new book China’s Heritage through History, explores these questions
through the case of the Orchid Pavilion gathering in Shaoxing, best known for its association
with Wang Xizhi’s calligraphy, one of the most renowned works in Chinese literary and
artistic history. From imperial times to contemporary China, the reproduction of this past has
taken many forms, from calligraphy imitations and stone inscriptions to the reconstruction
and simulation of the physical site itself. These processes extend beyond material heritage,
shaping knowledge transmission, social transformation, and the cultural economies of
tourism. The revival of literary gatherings, ritual pilgrimages, and heritage-themed
experiences fosters the ambience of the ancient literary and cultural world, reproducing its
physical presence and imaginary through historical re-enactment and tourism consumption.
Once reserved for elites, these practices have become widely accessible through digitisation,
public exhibitions, and the tourism industry, ensuring that the past remains an active and
evolving part of China’s heritage.
Speaker Bio
Yujie Zhu is Associate Professor at the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies at the
Australian National University. Yujie obtained his Ph.D. in anthropology from Heidelberg
University, Germany. His research focuses on the cultural politics of the past within diverse
heritage and memory spaces. He is the author and editor of 8 books including China’s Heritage
through History (2024), Heritage, Conflict, and Peace-Building (2024), Heritage
Tourism (2021), and Heritage Politics in China (2020).
|
