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Special Feature

Onstage: Exhibiting Intangible Cultural Heritage in China

Philipp Demgenski
p. 7-17

Abstract

The intangible cultural heritage (ICH) concept has been operational in China for almost 20 years. One integral part of China’s ICH landscape is a range of exhibition spaces and museums that specialise in the display, performance, and transmission of ICH. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork at different exhibition sites, this paper provides insights into what these exhibition spaces look like, how they function, how ICH is exhibited within them, and what exhibitions mean to different heritage actors. The article shows how ICH exhibitions have themselves become a sociocultural phenomenon, bringing together a variety of actors who experiment with different forms of display and types of exhibitions in an ad hoc, spontaneous, and unregulated way. The paper also contributes to the broader discussion on ICH as a political intervention that transforms the cultural practices and expressions it normatively sets out to safeguard.

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Editor’s notes

Manuscript received on 11 November 2020. Accepted on 27 June 2022.

Excerpt

Full text document will be published online on March 2024.

Outline

Introduction
Methodology
ICH exhibitions: Towards a definition
ICH exhibitions in China: An overview
Onstage: Making the intangible tangible
Concluding discussion

First lines

Introduction

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (hereafter the 2003 Convention) has been operational in China for almost 20 years and intangible cultural heritage (ICH), or what is domestically known as 非遺 (feiyi), has become a well-known and established concept. Many elements have been identified, inventories compiled, and legal texts devised, and the ICH concept has found much resonance in the media, among officials, the general public, and particularly among cultural practitioners (Chang 2017; Gao 2017). Along with the nationwide rise and spread of ICH, a vast number of exhibition premises have emerged across the country that specialise in the display, performance, and transmission of ICH. These entities have become an important and integral part of China’s heritage landscape, serving as spaces through which cultural practices and expressions designated...

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References

Bibliographical reference

Philipp Demgenski, Onstage: Exhibiting Intangible Cultural Heritage in ChinaChina Perspectives, 132 | 2023, 7-17.

Electronic reference

Philipp Demgenski, Onstage: Exhibiting Intangible Cultural Heritage in ChinaChina Perspectives [Online], 132 | 2023, Online since 01 March 2024, connection on 10 June 2023. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/14509; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/chinaperspectives.14509

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About the author

Philipp Demgenski

Philipp Demgenski is Junior Professor at the Institute of Anthropology, Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University, Office 1135, Chuangyi Lou A, West Zijingang Campus, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, People's Republic of China (pdemgenski@zju.edu.cn).

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Copyright

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