Abstract
Since the reform and opening-up policy of 1978, China has established the double-track inventory system of rural heritage preservation to cope with the impact of rapid urbanisation on rural areas. This paper analyses the evolution in the concept of policy making from the Historical and Cultural Villages system to the Traditional Villages system. It argues that the mass recognition of Traditional Villages in China since 2012 indicates that the understandings of rural heritage have evolved from the distinguished to the diverse, the tangible only to the intangible included, and the material-based to the human-based. Under the rural revitalisation policy, the role of Traditional Villages in social development will be further explored and promoted as ‘means of improvement’, looking for the balance between protection and development of rural heritage in the urban-rural dual structure.
Highlights
The discourse of safeguarding traditional villages in China requires to be viewed in the context of rapid urbanisation taking place in the country since the reform and openingup policy of 1978
If we compare the criteria in the assessment and selection process of the Historical and Cultural Villages (2003, 2008) with that of the Traditional Villages (2012), the extended value space in the identification of rural heritage will be self-evident (Table 1)
The Preservation Plan-led System, regulated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban–Rural Development and its local equivalents, serves for the protection of authenticity and integrity of old buildings in core area. It has been the central task of departmental management work of rural heritage preservation for many years
Summary
Villages as living rural heritage, rural landscape as heritage 1 cities with celebrated history should be regarded as unmovable cultural relics and be preserved. A series of land policies and intervention measures were announced, in order to encourage local governments to regulate and construct small towns by relocating villagers and amalgamating villages in their administrative regions. It led to the vanishing of numerous traditional communities. 22 distinguished towns and villages were included in its first batch, credited with the title and taken under the tutelage of law This indicated the establishment of one-track administrative system in the preservation of rural heritage in China. With rural revitalisation strategies carried out progressively, rural heritage is becoming one of the means to improve the quality of life for the rural population and to enroll the countryside in a more governmentalised state process in a broader context (Figure 1)
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