Politics of Scale: Cultural Heritage in China

Abstract

This chapter examines in detail the case of China to illustrate how politics of scale contribute to heritage studies as a critical approach. Examining the production, governance, practice and consumption of cultural heritage in China, I will address the following perspectives of scalar effects on cultural heritage: 1) how scale is used by cultural heritage institutions to legitimate their authority and produce hierarchies among scales; 2) how global heritage discourses affect national and local scales through the process of downscaling; and 3) how local struggles emerge to negotiate with heritage authorities through jumping among scales.