Claiming heritage: the Manas epic between China and Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

In this article I argue that the renewed promotion of the Manas epic in Kyrgyzstan after 2010 should not be reduced to an attempt to consolidate a national identity or strengthen the state by endorsing ethno-nationalism. Instead, since the 2009 inscription of the Manas epic on the UNESCO List of Intangible Heritage by China, Kyrgyzstan has undertaken a full-scale heritagization not only of the Manas epic but also of its other tangible or intangible cultural assets. This heritagization has been shaped by an anxiety that Kyrgyzstan’s most valuable cultural asset might be appropriated by China. By shifting the focus from Manas as a potential national role model to the epic as national heritage, I suggest that Kyrgyzstan’s latest outburst of ‘Manasification’ is better understood as an attempt to resist China’s ongoing attempts to harness the heritage discourse in rewriting the cultural and historical narrative of Eurasia.

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