Eco-sites, Song Traditions and Cultural Heritage in the Lower Yangzi Delta

Abstract

This study explores the struggle to preserve both the cultural heritage and the eco-sites associated with heritage in one of the most affluent and economically developed regions in China. In the twenty-first century, the introduction of global norms deriving from UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage and World Heritage Sites has led to a series of measures at the local level to preserve items of cultural heritage that are likely to vanish due to the accelerated pace of development in the lower Yangzi delta. This study focuses particularly on Wu Songs, the traditional songs of delta populations, now entered into the national register for Intangible Cultural Heritage. Wu Songs were associated with labour in the rice paddies and travel along the waterways. The rice paddies and waterways were both essential elements of the traditional ecosystem, but are now imperilled in various ways by the impact of modernisation and globalisation. Issues of heritage value arise in different forms in the more affluent regions of China. As argued here, contention between ethnographers, land developers and municipal authorities, as well as commercial land use imperatives, dominate the conservation of eco-sites and Intangible Cultural Heritage in the delta region.

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