Hello! I'm your financial journalist and economic scholar partner. This article from Tencent News highlights a common yet often overlooked issue in rural revitalization and cultural tourism development: we think we are doing something for protection, but in the eyes of the villagers, it might seem like a disturbance or something irrelevant to their lives.
To help you understand this better, I've broken down the article into five key points, explaining the logic and the truth behind them in plain language.
1. Core Summary: A Beautiful Misunderstanding
The main point of the article is quite sharp: the protection of rural cultural heritage often leads to a misalignment between the protectors and the people being protected.
- From the perspective of protectors (experts, governments, tourists): We want to save the old houses, traditions, and sites that are on the verge of disappearing. We strive for authenticity and treat them as precious artifacts for people to admire.
- From the perspective of the villagers: We still need to go on with our daily lives. Adding an aluminum alloy shed to an old house is for shelter and storage; dancing the Guozhuang dance is for fun and community, not for performances for outsiders. Even if the archaeological site is nationally significant, it has little direct relevance to our daily tasks like growing tea, working, and making a living.
Conclusion: This misalignment creates an awkward situation where the more we try to protect, the more the villagers feel that it has nothing to do with them. It's not that the villagers are uneducated; it's that our approach to protection is too modern and elitist, detached from the real daily life in the countryside.
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2. Breakdown 1: What is the “Real Rural Life?” Don’t Treat Life Like a Museum
The article gives a vivid example of a Tibetan village in Aba, Sichuan:
- From the expert’s perspective: The villagers building aluminum alloy sheds on their traditional houses is seen as a destruction of the local style, lacking in authenticity and considered a form of heritage destruction.
- From the villagers’ perspective: These sheds are cheap, sturdy, provide shelter, and are useful for drying things and brewing tea. They meet their practical needs.
Deep Insight: A common mistake is to apply 20th-century European ideas of monument-based preservation to Chinese villages. That approach assumes heritage must be old, primitive, and static. However, in Chinese villages, tradition is alive and evolving. Villagers wear Tibetan clothes and dance the Guozhuang dance because they enjoy it, not because of rules. They go to the mountains for prayers because it’s part of their culture, not to verify its origins. True authenticity doesn’t mean the houses must be dilapidated; it means the way of life is a real choice and continuation for the villagers. Forcing the removal of practical sheds would turn living people into statues in a museum.
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3. Breakdown 2: Sites Are Valuable, but Not Directly Linked to Villagers’ Finances
The article mentions a case in Anji, Zhejiang, where a national key cultural heritage site—ancient city ruins and tombs—has been turned into a popular tourist attraction.
- On the surface: It seems like a perfect example of how heritage can drive rural development: with a site, a park, tourism, and recognition.
- But behind the scenes: When asked what the site means to their lives, the villagers’ responses were indifferent. Their income comes from various sources, including tea farming, working outside, and tourism. The site does bring fame, but it’s not their main source of wealth. Moreover, many villagers now live further away from the site, and their memories of playing there as children have faded.
Deep Insight: We often assume that protecting heritage will automatically give villagers cultural identity and improve their lives. But this is a misconception. Cultural identity doesn’t arise from just putting up a sign or building a park. If heritage protection doesn’t connect with the villagers’ economic interests and their memories, it remains absent in their lives. Although the site is physically present in the village, it may be emotionally absent from their lives. This is a hidden crisis in many rural heritage preservation efforts.
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4. Breakdown 3: From “Rescuing Artifacts” to “Integrating into Daily Life,” the Logic of Protection Needs to Change
The article points out that the traditional approach to protection was object-oriented:
- If the house remains, protection is successful; if it collapses, protection fails; if the tradition is passed down, protection is successful.
This approach treats heritage as isolated artifacts. However, in reality:
- Old houses are connected to people’s housing needs; ancient sites are related to land use and livelihoods; traditional rituals are linked to social interactions and relationships.
Deep Insight: Focusing only on the physical aspects (houses, sites) while ignoring the people and their needs makes heritage hollow. The author suggests that future protection should not just be about rescuing, but also about learning from the villagers and coordinating their needs with expert values. For example, instead of banning sheds, we could design more aesthetically pleasing and practical ones. Instead of imposing the importance of the site, we could show villagers how it relates to their ancestral stories.
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5. Small, Practical Actions That Bring Heritage to Life
The article concludes with two examples of how this can be achieved:
- Example 1: Taking Portrait Photos of the Elderly (Anji): Students visit the elderly, take photos, and listen to their stories about the past. This helps the heritage become more relatable and meaningful to them.
- Example 2: Junior High School Students Interviewing Their Parents (Guangzhou): Students from the city interview their parents about their childhood in the village, and art teachers guide them to paint and photograph the local life. This turns the village from an abstract concept into a tangible, story-rich place.
Deep Insight: These small actions may seem trivial, but they highlight the importance of integrating heritage into people’s personal stories. When villagers or children use their own language and perspectives to tell the story of the heritage, it comes to life. The ultimate goal of protection is not to preserve things in isolation but to let them naturally exist in people’s conversations, memories, and aesthetics.
Journalist/Scholar’s Conclusion for Readers
This article serves as a reminder to everyone involved in rural revitalization, cultural tourism, and urban renewal:
1. Don’t be arrogant: Don’t assume villagers don’t understand the “deep culture”; they understand the logic of their lives. Aluminum alloy sheds may not be aesthetically pleasing, but they are part of their daily lives.
2. Don’t separate: Don’t divorce cultural heritage from economic development and daily life. If heritage protection makes life harder for villagers or seems irrelevant, it’s unlikely to be sustainable.
3. Don’t be one-way: Protection is not a one-sided act of giving or educating; it’s a two-way dialogue. We need to learn from the villagers and understand their choices.
In one sentence:
The protection of rural cultural heritage should not be about turning the countryside into a static museum but about re-integrating heritage into the dynamic lives of the villagers. Only when heritage becomes a part of their lives can it be truly protected.