The ancient Chinese villages : evolution, heritage and tourism development ; Les vieux villages chinois : évolution, patrimonialisation et mise en tourisme

Abstract

Traditional China was a highly agricultural society where the majority of people lived in villages. Each village constituted a miniature world, which showed great diversity at all levels. All the characteristics of rural China mainly remained in ancient villages. The settlement distribution structure, as we see today, is the product of continuous evolution in three thousands years. The concept of heritage appeared in China in early times. But heritage protection, in particular, the concept of architectural heritage protection in China was more closed to now. As for settlement protection, history of action from government could be merely traced back to three decades. These actions first of all came out for " Famous Cities" (1982), and then for "Historical Blocks" (1986) and finally for "Famous Town and Village" (2002). The protection of ancient villages in China focused on the lists published with different names and levels, facing a series of paradoxes and with long way to go. Despite enormous criticism, tourism utilization is still one of the alternatives in the protection of ancient villages. The case of Xidi showed the double process of heritage and tourism development, which started in the Mid-1980s. Under the advocation and leadership of local village elites, Xidi tourism development implemented the management of collective ownership enterprise. The entire development witnessed the profound changes in the village and various conflicts among different actors. All sorts of conflicts and crisis accompanying eventually lead to the end of Xidi mode after 27 years practice. Xidi, however, has not been in peace due to the reform imposed by the local government, there still has been intense and widespread controversy surrounding Xidi as well as many other Chinese ancient villages ; La Chine traditionnelle était une société fortement agricole dans laquelle la plupart du peuple habitait les villages. Ceux-ci, constituant chacun un monde en soi, montraient une grande diversité sous différents aspects. Les ...