Abstract
PurposeThe study aims to understand how cultural route heritage is conceptualized and managed in China by systematically reviewing the research literature on Chinese cultural route heritage (CRH). The study intends to inspire further discussion on the theoretical and practical development of cultural routes since the development is still at a liminal stage in China.Design/methodology/approachA total of 253 research articles related to Chinese cultural rote heritage from major Chinese and English research databases China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus have been comprehensively identified and reviewed for the purpose of the study.FindingsFour major themes of research on Chinese CRH have been identified: conceptual evaluation, list of the routes and characteristics of the routes, conservation and utilization. The results revealed that China has very rich resources in CRH, many of which were formed a long time ago, which exist across vast geographic regions and have assumed multiple functions and undergone dynamic reciprocal exchanges among diverse cultures and ethnicities.Practical implicationsThe paper summarizes some major obstacles faced by CRH in China and proposes a strategic model to address the need for a more sustainable development of CRH in the Chinese context.Originality/valueThe paper offers a comprehensive overview of CRH in China and discusses practical issues in management and development of heritage great in size, number and complexity.
Highlights
Cultural heritage represents the shared memory of people in a community, a region, a nation or among nations
Research themes and methods about the Chinese cultural routes A total of 4 research themes can be identified from the 253 research articles on the Chinese cultural route heritage (CRH), namely conceptualization of cultural route, its identification and evaluation, conservation and utilization
Scholars in Chinese CRH studies come from a variety of disciplines, such as architecture, geography, landscape, engineering, history, archeology and tourism (Lin et al, 2017)
Summary
Cultural heritage represents the shared memory of people in a community, a region, a nation or among nations. Modern societies are increasingly aware of the importance of preserving their cultural and natural heritage so that future generations can have access to the common memories that have shaped identity and reality for present-day people. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/ legalcode
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