Is colonial heritage negative or not so much?Debating heritage discourses and selective interpretation of Kulangsu,China

Heritage is in essence dissonant,especially colonial heritage in postcolonial nations.Via questionnaire surveys and inter‑views,this study investigates Kulangsu in Xiamen,China,a colonial heritage site mainly developed in the 19th and 20th centuries,to unveil the local government’s authorised heritage discourse(AHD)of the site and how tourists perceive the colonial past of Kulangsu and construct their own heritage discourse(s).Results show that,when considering the colonial history of the site,neither the AHD promoted by the authorities nor the tourists’lay discourses are necessarily negative.However,tension implicitly arises between the tourists’demand for comprehensive heritage information and the authorities’selective interpretation of the site.Although the AHD afects lay discourses to some extent,most tourists expect the authorities to present more complete and neutral information about heritage so they can refect and forge their own conception of colonial legacies.From a critical heritage studies perspective,this tension refects the power imbalance between the authorities and the tourists and reminds the authorities and heritage experts to rethink heritage tourism and conservation in terms of heritage interpretation.This paper,therefore,calls for additional refection on the legitimacy of selective interpretation,which implicates a complex process of intricate reasoning that is underpinned by the power imbalance between the authorities and the tourists,ultimately resulting in an AHD.

Valorising Ikseon-dong’s Hanok residence as a heritage place

This study aims to create a basis for sustainable conservation by identifying the heritage value of 166 Ikseon-dong.Based on old land registers and cadastral maps of the 1920s and 1930s,it interpreted the construction procedure,social background,and urban architectural characteristics of the road and plot subdivision of the modern Hanok district.Ikseon-dong Hanok produced four types of ground plans based on the grid-street system.This study argues that these innovative experiments have already been attempted through Bak Young-hyo’s proposals in his Geonbaekseo and the architectural activities of Jeong Segwon,and that the idea of applying various housing types,layouts,and grid-street system planning was embodied through the development of the Hanok complex in Ikseon-dong.Further,this attempt greatly influenced the design of other Hanok complexes built in colonial Gyeongseong after 1936,taking the Ikseon-dong Hanok as a role model.The radiation of new perspectives will be a groundwork for the future sustainable conservation of heritage places.