Guizhou, Southwest China: cultural challenges in ethnic villages

Abstract

Faced with the drastic impacts of mass urbanization and aggressive development during the past few decades, there is a rising awareness of the fragility of, and the need for, conservation of traditional villages in China. Due to the high concentration of well-preserved ethnic minority cultures in southwest China, these ethnic villages - once perceived as sites of marginal heritage - have unexpectedly become hotspots in the national rural cultural heritage conservation movement of the past 5 years. This article attempts to reveal the inadequacy of existing Chinese cultural heritage policies and practices when applied to such a context, and the issues that result from them, by examining the subject of land ownership and inheritance system in a Dong ethnic village in Guzhou Province.