Routledge Contemporary China Series. London; New York: Routledge, 2023. US$170.00, cloth; US$48.00, ebook. ISBN 9781032513676.
This well-researched volume highlights heritage politics, delving deep into heritage conservation and heritage tourism and their links to soft power. The authors examine the UNESCO World Heritage List (WHL) from a nation-building perspective, flagging economic and place-branding advantages that can be traced from the list. The volume equally demonstrates the tensions and complexities in the realpolitik of the global heritage scene. Placing China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) within the broader framework of heritage diplomacy, the contributors highlight the “commodification” of the UNESCO-administered world heritage sites. It also emerges that state involvement in heritage preservation programs has entrenched specific political agendas while directly aligning transnational corridors of heritage production with the “foreign policies and trade ambitions of these governments” (48).
Despite Beijing trying to impress upon the global publics the BRI’s goal of promoting regional connectivity between countries along the traditional Silk Roads, wariness among the international community over the geo-strategic implications of the BRI has been steadily mounting. Both Tim Winter and Sandra Uskokovic, in their respective chapters, underline regional tensions and competition, which result in revisions to the history and geographies of ancient civilizations and provoke political disagreements between European countries. In a similar vein, Victor C. M. Chan cautions that a power rivalry between China and the other countries involved in the initiative is likely to impede heritage cooperation, with Angela Tritto and Punto Wijayanto expressing a fear that the BRI’s top-down approach might not be able to generate significant results in terms of people-to-people relations. China’s top-down approach, with inadequate public participation and consultations with stakeholders (for a project like the BRI) might alienate the public due to its close ties with local elites in the host country.
The World Heritage sites examined in this volume ascertain how the idea of the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) comes to be articulated and constructed around certain locations and episodes. Given that mapping has emerged as a critical practice in international relations, and the potential of maps to be weaponized has taken centre stage, scholars like Tim Winter suggest that maps are increasingly being deployed as tools for pursuing state-based agendas. The “Roads of Dialogue” project shows maps depicting museums and media projects beginning in China, but excluding Korea and Japan from their construct, thereby perpetuating regional complexities. Maps deployed as tools of manipulation and influence are not limited to heritage diplomacy alone; the practice has wider strategic applications as well.
The different interpretations of a shared history across countries and peoples is another focus of the book. In her chapter, Sandra Uskokovic argus that heritage is often an arena for contestation and is politicized to the core. While other contributors like Angela Tritto and Punto Wijayanto demonstrate that cultural nationalism, advanced by the “Roads of Dialogue” project, is responsible for creating contesting heritage models, Uskokovic mentions how the shared heritage of Marco Polo has become a contested topic between Italy and Croatia. Yunci Cai, highlighting the politicization of heritage conservation, refers to Quanzhou (China) and Melaka (Malaysia) to prove how heritage has “emerged as a depoliticized regime grounded in global discourses of threat, vulnerability and sustainability” (79). There have been other contestations as well regarding style, documentation, and historical research, such as between China and Singapore over a Minnan-style temple at Hong San See, as examined by Kang Shua Yeo.
Authors in this volume explore how changing heritage conservation practices are influenced by a country’s own national interests and politics. Pascale Bugnon argues that the establishment of the “New Silk Roads,” where famous Islamic sites are conceived as “cultural” showcases, offers a positive view of Islam in China and helps facilitate exchanges between China and its partners in the Middle East. However, many scholars also question whether China’s heavy investments in the Middle East through the BRI are a ploy to silence those countries on the topic of China’s repressive policies against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Another important emphasis of the volume is China’s efforts to re-pivot “Western-dominated” heritage diplomacy, in tune with Beijing’s long-term strategic goal of offering non-Western perspectives on issues of global prominence, including soft power. Victor C. M. Chan emphatically suggests how the BRI may inject new momentum into efforts, led by China, to reshape the current framework of heritage diplomacy. While offering an alternate Asian perspective to the global community has been a major thrust, assuming a leadership role in domains that have been traditionally Western-dominated has been an equal priority for Beijing. Furthermore, driving Sinocentric narratives for global consumption has also been an important consideration for Beijing, manifest during COVID-19: heritage diplomacy, along with archeology, has provided China the necessary opportunities to “lead.”
Christian Langer’s piece illustrates quite well China’s aspiration “to lead.” The chapter addresses the topics of archaeology and Egyptology as part of the BRI, an area of serious engagement for China. Egyptology, long dominated by the West, has been seized on by China to “signal its arrival on the stage of global archaeology” (124). China’s lead in the BRI can also be seen as part of the government’s plan to use archeology to project power and drive Sinocentric narratives. Langer argues that archaeology, while serving as the friendly face of foreign policy abroad, also helps the government project power, thereby enabling Beijing to drive narratives which favour China. In fact, archaeology denotes hard power as well if archaeologists provide military intelligence or information on local geography and people.
Lucid and interesting, the volume is an important reference for future research in international relations, particularly heritage diplomacy and cultural studies. The book provides key insights for readers in the domain of diplomacy and addresses the politics behind heritage conservation and heritage tourism. The fascinating country-specific examples make the book particularly engaging, and the analyses illustrate the complexities and tensions that shape heritage diplomacy.
Parama Sinha Palit
Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI), New Delhi