Global Discourse and Local Struggles in World Heritage Making: The Construction and Consequences of the Silk Roads as World Heritage in China

Abstract

In 2014, the 'Silk Roads: The Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor' was inscribed on the World Heritage List. The Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the Silk Roads was determined to rest on the material and immaterial exchanges that had occurred for over 2,000 years among various Eurasian civilisations. Although there are written records and archaeological discoveries that support the long history of communications between different cultures, it was only in 1877 that the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen coined the term 'Silk Road(s)'. The thesis identifies the discourses that define the Silk Roads and examines how the 'Silk Roads' discourses have framed and influenced historical knowledge and perceptions about the UNESCO route. The research outlines how a particular understanding of the 'Silk Roads' discourse came to dominate and be authorised by UNESCO, despite the existence of alternative understandings and approaches to defining Eurasian exchanges. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is employed to examine the nomination dossier and other relevant UNESCO documents to reveal that the Silk Roads nomination for the World Heritage listing was framed by both the authorised heritage discourse (AHD) and a Han-Chinese dominant historical discourse. The Silk Roads as World Heritage was accordingly made to be a witness to the peaceful and romantic communication between the great Han-Chinese Han and Tang empires and other civilisations in the West. Ethnic groups such as the Uyghurs were relegated to secondary positions or obscured in the heritage narrative. The argument is supported through the triangulation of data drawing not only on CDA, but also on interview material and ethnographic studies of the World Heritage nomination practices and the impact of the Silk Roads World Heritagisation onto a local Uyghur community closely associated with one of the designated Silk Roads properties. Supported by discourse analysis and ethnographic inquiries, the dissertation challenges the OUV of the Silk Roads, and argues that the World Heritagisation was produced through a selective use of history. This selection was framed by the dynamic interaction of the AHD and the Han-Chinese historical discourse, the consequence of which has been to obscure Uyghur history and heritage.