La protection du patrimoine en Republique populaire de Chine, 1949-1999 (review)

Diverse readers will benefit from Jocelyn Fresnais' La protection du patrimoine en République populaire de Chine, 1949-1999. More narrowly focused than its title suggests, this volume will nonetheless interest anthropologists, museologists, art historians, political scientists, travel-industry and tourism managers, reference librarians, and laypersons. Fresnais' writing is fluid and reads more easily than some post-dissertation derivative works. Nicely illustrated and densely footnoted with Chinese, French, and English sources, the book discusses conservation and restoration issues and practices in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The publisher operates under the auspices of the Ministry of National Education, Research, and Technology. Specializing in modern and contemporary Chinese history and civilization, the author earned her doctorate from the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences), holds a diploma in history and art history from the Université Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne, and teaches history at the Université Jean-Moulin-Lyon 3 .

To the extent that leaders of post-World War II Asian states like China have felt greater pressure than their counterparts in Europe and North America to assert and affirm national cohesiveness domestically and abroad, demarcating a country's patrimony can thereby assume greater urgency. Moreover, with the shedding of much of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought since the late 1970s, the designation and protection of culturally significant buildings, historic monuments, and sacred mountains may have gained greater salience as the impetus for Chinese nationalism.

In the PRC the number of museums has increased thirty-seven times in less than fifty years, from thirty-five in 1952 to a total of 1,282 in 1997 (see pp. 259-261 , figs. 49-51). Meanwhile, as the Beijing Olympics draws closer, tourism and global media attention to this event will provide world audiences an opportunity to view artifacts from Chinese history and culture. In the few years following publication of La protection du patrimoine en République populaire de Chine, 1949-1999, cultural and economic trade-offs embedded in contemporary preservationism have continued to attract attention in China's media. In 2002, for example, China's investment in "cultural causes" increased "17.8 percent over the previous year, and fees for central level cultural projects grew 24 percent," according to Renmin Ribaojournalist Li Heng. ¹

Whether for rapid reference or assiduous study or just informal reading, readers should consult the index (pp. 633-650) ²and the table of contents (pp. 651-653) ³to locate topics of interest relating to the PRC's effort to represent its cultural memory.

To what extent do current preservation efforts build on the work of earlier political generations in China? In answer to this question, chapter 1, "Antecedents of Heritage Protection," concisely summarizes museum practices in the final years of the Qing dynasty and the early decades of the Republic of China (pp. 27 - 66). Designating the national heritage is a political act. It has implications for the ways in which people who do not know one another can imagine themselves as part of a community different from non-Chinese. ⁴But what is meant by "heritage" or "patrimony"? Fresnais translates wenwuas " patrimoineou monuments historiques" ( heritageor historic monuments), that is, public or historic buildings (p. 22; author's emphasis). As with any government-inspired definition, this is arguable. While I prefer a broader definition of patrimony, this one is clear enough to be usable. "Patrimony" is further defined in chapter 2 and elsewhere (pp. 531-532, 541), but the book needs a subtitle to signal its narrower purview.

Part 1 of chapter 2 presents...