Abstract
The term ‘cultural landscape’ has many different meanings for different people throughout the world. It has been widely circulated since the international recognition of cultural landscapes extended to World Heritage prominence in 1992 with three categories of cultural landscapes of outstanding universal value defined as the ‘combined works of nature and of man’. However, the application of World Heritage Cultural Landscapes (WHCLs) encountered difficulties in China. This paper reviews the history of nature-related World Heritage conservation in the country, examines the cross-cultural confusion of World Heritage practice from Chinese traditional cultural perspective of culture and nature relationship to address to the international bewilderment about China’s two-decade absence from WHCLs. The paper also reviews the efforts taken by China to dispel the conceptual confusion, what has been inspired by and contributed to the WHCLs in the recent years. Finally, the paper examines what China and WHCLs can mutually benefit from each other based on the common concerns of sustainable development and harmonious human-nature relationship in the future.
Highlights
Cultural landscape is a Western concept in the field of cultural geography
A country that inspired World Heritage Cultural Landscapes (WHCLs) by its representative Eastern philosophy of ‘Oneness with Nature’ and is supposed to hold outstanding ‘combined works of nature and of humans’, has maintained nearly 20 years of silence with regard to WHCLs and only became active recently. Why is this so? Is WHCL a totally new concept, type and approach for heritage conservation for China, like the international community’s recognition? Is there nothing new for China? Is it China’s lack of knowledge, understanding or interest in WHCLs? To what extent have WHCLs influenced China’s recognition of heritage conservation? This paper aims to provide answers to these questions by reviewing the nature-related heritage conservation practices in China during the last two decades
In 2010, in view of the WHCL confusion occurred in Lushan and Mount Wutai, as well as the great contribution of the Scenic and Historic Interest Areas to World Heritage, the UNESCO Beijing Office launched and commissioned Tongji University to undertake the Project of Lushan Culture Landscape Value Research3 under the World Heritage Conservation and Management Program in China
Summary
Cultural landscape is a Western concept in the field of cultural geography. Sauer (1925) defined it as ‘the cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a cultural group. In 2010, in view of the WHCL confusion occurred in Lushan and Mount Wutai, as well as the great contribution of the Scenic and Historic Interest Areas to World Heritage, the UNESCO Beijing Office launched and commissioned Tongji University to undertake the Project of Lushan Culture Landscape Value Research under the World Heritage Conservation and Management Program in China. This project kicked off a systematic study of the cultural landscape research in China’s Scenic and Historic Interest Areas. The southeast of Guizhou became the focal point of rural, small settlement cultural landscape conservation in China
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