DOCSLIB.ORG

Authenticity, Preservation, and the Transnational

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Authenticity, Preservation, and the Transnational AUTHENTICITY, PRESERVATION, AND THE TRANSNATIONAL IDENTITY OF SPACE: COMPARING YIN YU TANG AND THE LINDEN CENTRE by Mariko Azuma A thesis submitted to the faculty of The University of Utah in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Art History Department of Art and Art History The University of Utah December 2018 Copyright © Mariko Azuma 2018 All Rights Reserved T h e University of Utah Graduate School STATEMENT OF THESIS APPROVAL The thesis of Mariko Azuma has been approved by the following supervisory committee members: Winston C. Kyan , Chair 9/25/18 Date Approved Lela J. Graybill , Member 9/25/18 Date Approved Shundana Yusaf , Member 9/25/18 Date Approved and by Paul Stout , Chair of the Department of Art and Art History and by David B. Kieda, Dean of The Graduate School. ABSTRACT My thesis compares the theoretical ideas of authenticity through two forms of rural Chinese vernacular architecture, Yin Yu Tang in Salem, MA, U.S.A. and the Linden Centre in Xizhou, Yunnan Province, China. Yin Yu Tang is a house originally built in the Huizhou Region in Southeast China around 1800 and then eventually moved to the Peabody Essex Museum in New England. The Linden Centre, formerly known as Yang’s Compound, was built in 1947 and did not experience physical recontextualization but was transformed into a boutique hotel operated by an American. Through art historical analysis that is informed by the social sciences, museum studies, and tourism studies, I argue that Yin Yu Tang and the Linden Centre are examples of vernacular architecture that use recontextualization to cultivate an authenticity found within the framework of display. The structures share similar histories of transformation and provide the contemporary visitor a chance to escape from reality to experience the past, the foreign, and the endangered. However, they also provide insight into the tendencies of preservation efforts as well as the future of preservation that must increasingly consider the intersections of space, time, and display. Through a consideration of Yin Yu Tang and the Linden Centre’s past, present, and future, my thesis closely examines conceptual identifiers such as placemaking through intangible culture, frameworks of display, the processes of authentication, and the creation of tradition. Ultimately, I argue that the long-term approach to heritage preservation is multifaceted and reveals the idealistic illusion of authenticity that has the potential to initiate radical transformations. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. vi Chapters 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 The Sites..................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology .............................................................................................................. 3 Theoretical Overview................................................................................................. 6 2. THE PAST .................................................................................................................... 10 Preservation and Authenticity .................................................................................. 10 Yin Yu Tang and the Linden Centre in Contemporary Context .............................. 17 Transformation from Space to Place........................................................................ 24 3. THE PRESENT ............................................................................................................ 52 Placemaking and the Framework of Display ........................................................... 52 Communicating the Intangible at Yin Yu Tang ....................................................... 52 Communicating the Intangible at the Linden Centre ............................................... 56 The Metaphor of the Frame ..................................................................................... 59 Reframing of Yin Yu Tang and the Linden Centre ........................................ 59 Authenticity to Be Gazed At: The Visuality of Sightseeing and Tourism .............. 63 Performative Authenticity in Tourism ..................................................................... 67 4. THE FUTURE .............................................................................................................. 78 Authentication and the Process of Becoming .......................................................... 78 The Creation of Tradition ............................................................................... 81 The Future of Placemaking ...................................................................................... 82 5. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................. 89 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................ 95 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis is a culmination of my graduate research at the University of Utah as well as the support and encouragement that has helped develop my enjoyment of art history. Firstly, I would like to thank my Supervisory Committee Chair, Prof. Winston Kyan, who has spent countless hours guiding me and teaching me effective research skills. His extensive knowledge and eagerness have cultivated me in to the researcher I am today, and I am grateful for his invaluable mentorship beginning from my undergraduate research endeavors. I would also like to thank the dedicated efforts of Prof. Lela Graybill and Prof. Shundana Yusaf. Thank you to both of you for your guidance and expertise in art history and architectural history that have shed light on essential aspects of my thesis. Thank you to Dr. Wei (Windy) Zhao for introducing me to the complex and intriguing concepts of architectural heritage through her course titled Chinese Vernacular Tradition and Cultural Heritage, which has inspired key arguments of this thesis. Thank you to Dr. Nancy Berliner, the current Wu Tung Curator of Chinese Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Brian Linden, the founder of the Linden Centre, for their cooperation and vital insight about their respective projects and passions. I would like to extend my appreciation to the entire Art History Program faculty and members of the School of Architecture faculty whom I have had the privilege to learn from. Thank you for providing me with an education that has challenged me and piqued my curiosity for future discoveries that lie within the dynamic fields. I would like to thank the Department of Art and Art History for opportunities such as the Graduate Teaching Assistantship, which enriched my graduate career through teaching undergraduate courses and assisting professors. I appreciate support from the Etta Keith Eskridge Travel Award and the Graduate School’s Travel Assistance Award for aiding my research at the Linden Centre in Xizhou, China and presenting my research at the International Congress, Preserving Transcultural Heritage in Lisbon, Portugal. I would also like to thank the Asia Center for providing me with the federally funded Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) that enabled me to study Mandarin in China and further inspired my interests in the visuality of tourism and museum studies. Lastly, thank you to my family and friends who have provided me with consistent encouragement and emotional support. I am grateful for each of you. vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The Sites The search for authenticity is an ambitious endeavor manifested in the consistent thirst for discovery, renewal, and gratification of something “real,” despite the uncertainty of its ultimate attainability. Within the field of art history, the preservation, commodification, and display of art and architecture inside and outside museums is tethered to the idea of the authentic as well as the construction of authority around such authentic objects.1 This thesis examines the theoretical ideas of authenticity and the built environment through a comparative case study of two key architectural structures: Yin Yu Tang in Salem, MA, U.S.A. and the Linden Centre in Xizhou, Yunnan Province, China (Fig. 1). Yin Yu Tang is a two-story, sixteen-bedroom structure that was once home to the Huang merchant family in the Huizhou Region of Southeast China.2 It was built towards the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and housed generations of the Huang family for 1 For more information surrounding the search for authenticity, see Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, “Hypperreal Monuments of the Mind: Traditional Chinese Architecture and Disneyland,” in Traditional Dwelling and Settlements Review, vol. 23, No. 2 (Spring 2012), Dean MacCannell, “Staged Authenticity: Arrangement of Social Space in Tourist Settings,” in American Journal of Sociology 79, no. 3, 1973, and David Phillips, Exhibiting Authenticity (Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 1997), 197. 2 Second Story, “Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home,” Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home, last modified December 2002, accessed September 1, 2018, http://yinyutang.pem.org/house/base.html. 2 more that 200 years until the mid-1980s.3 Through a series of events, the then Curator
Load more

Recommended publications
  • China Fieldwork Semester
    CET CHINA FIELDWORK SEMESTER HIGH SCHOOL/GAP PROGRAM IN RURAL YUNNAN PROVINCE Spring 2021 and 2022 WHY CHOOSE CHINA FIELDWORK SEMESTER? Because you’ll take advantage of all that rural China has to offer. China’s mega cities get a lot of media attention, but living and studying in rural China allows you to observe how economic, social, and environmental changes are impacting smaller communities. In this interdisciplinary, full-semester program, you’ll discover how the Chinese landscape has changed a community’s sense of place over generations and then compare that to the urban setting of Shanghai at the end of the program. You’ll benefit from inspired teaching in the field. Academic Director John Flower (of Sidwell Friends School in Washington, DC) designed the fieldwork-based curriculum to challenge motivated high school and gap year students looking for a study abroad experience unlike any other. You’ll engage with teachers and mentors in the field and the classroom. Receive proof of all that you’ve accomplished with a transcript from Dickinson College, CET’s school of record for high school and pre-college programs. You’ll also take advantage of the industry-leading advising, risk management, and student support services of CET, expertise we’ve honed through 35+ years of experience operating study abroad programs in China. Because you’ll grow beyond your wildest expectations. Though your curriculum has courses focused on individual topics, the program’s experiential learning component ties all the different subjects together. You’ll be challenged to speak Mandarin, learn new skills through an apprenticeship, and apply your learning in an entirely new way through individual and group projects.
    [Show full text]
  • AIEST Conference Pre-Tour China 2015
    AIEST Conference Pre-Tour China 2015 AIEST Convention Lijiang 2015 AIEST CONFERENCE PRE-TRIP . Travel date: 19 – 22 August 2015 . Destinations: Kunming, Dali, Shaxi, Lijiang . Duration: 4 days . Starting in: Kunming . Ending in: Lijiang . Group size: minimum 8 Pax B=Breakfast, L=Lunch, D=Dinner 19 AUGUST 2015: KUNMING (NO MEALS) Independent arrival in Kunming. Pick-up by driver and transfer to Intercontinental Kunming Hotel or similar. Individual welcome by tour leader. Individual dinner Please visit our website www.hiddenchina.net for more information AIEST Convention Lijiang 2015 20 AUGUST 2015: KUNMING - DALI (B/L/D) In the morning transfer with coach and guide to Kunming airport and flight to Dali. After arrival visit the 3 Pagodas of Dali and have a stroll in the old town. Late afternoon visit a village on the shores of Erhai Lake. Check-in Linden Centre and in the evening have dinner at the Linden Centre. During the dinner, Brian Linden, founder of the Linden Center (or one of his Senior staff members) will be present and explain you about the strategy, philosophy, history and future plans of Linden Centre. He will explain the about the challenges and difficulties of setting up sustainable tourism projects in the Dali area. http://www.linden-centre.com/ Overnight at Linden Centre 21 AUGUST 2015: DALI - SHAXI (B/L/D) In the morning we will visit the latest project site of Linden Centre to understand more of the concept and ideas. In the late morning drive around 3 hours to Shaxi. In the afternoon visit Stone Treasure Mountain.
    [Show full text]
  • Cultivation and Composition of Commercial Tourism Zones in Yunnan, China
    Cultivation and Composition of Commercial Tourism Zones in Yunnan, China Anthropology Departmental Honors Thesis University of Colorado, Boulder By Rose Salerno April 10 2017 Carla Jones, Advisor, Department of Anthropology Kaifa Roland, Department of Anthropology Emily Yeh, Department of Geography 2 Table of Contents 5- Introduction 13- Methods 15- Beginnings 17- Limitations 19- Fieldwork 22- Conclusion 24- Tourism in China 24- Conditions for Tourism 28- Politics and Tourism 30- Representation 31- Tourism as Poverty Alleviation 33- Ethnic Minorities and the Han Majority 33- Classification 36- Han in Minority Spaces 39- Creation of the “Other” 42- Redefinition of Ethnic Identity 47- The Anthropology of Tourism 47- What is Tourism? 49- Authenticity 52- Avoiding Binaries: postmodernism, reflexivity and the mutual gaze 56- Situating the Interviews 60- Dali 65- Lijiang 71- Shangri-La 77- Xizhou 81- Shaxi 85- Outsiders 89- Conclusion 3 Abstract This thesis examines the composition and cultivation of commercial tourism zones in Yunnan, China. I identify expectations tourists bring to their travels, and how receiving communities meet and transform those expectations, based on fieldwork in five receiving communities. I argue tourists have three primary motivations in touring to Yunnan: pursuit of the exotic, the natural world, and personal freedom. I situate this argument within three academic literatures: the scholarship on tourism in China, Chinese ethnic minorities, and the anthropology of tourism. I break the actors in Yunnan’s commercial tourism zones into four artificial categories of on-location actors: local residents, Han or ethnic minority migrants, foreign expatriates, and tourists. Commercial tourism zones such as Dali, Lijiang, Shangri-La, Shaxi and Xizhou form not only as a response to tourists’ desires but also as a result of municipal policies, and individual cultivation of tourism.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Dance in China?
    Why Dance in China? by Susan L. English, Ph.D. hen I first drafted the grant proposal to send 14 W traditional dancers and musicians to China on a cultural exchange, I predicted that we would “hold hands on the world stage.” Now that we are all back on American soil, I would say we did exactly that. US State Department grants for cultural exchange in China are a rare and precious commodity. I had checked their postings monthly for several years and, when the posting finally appeared, called up Dr. Deborah Thompson, director of the Country Dance Programs at Berea College in Kentucky. The Country Dancers were already preparing for a Denmark tour the summer of 2017, she explained, but if this Jennifer selected nine dancers ranging in age from is our only chance… We had just a month to write 14 to 24. They would prepare a dance program the proposal and, working with the Berea College including Appalachian big set and clogging, English, grants office, to develop a $50,000 budget. Letters of Danish, and contra dances, plus stick and rapper endorsement would include an important one from dances by a Morris team led by Bryce Carlberg. Rima Dael, then Executive Director of CDSS. Deborah Payne would play fiddle and contribute her extensive global expertise. To keep us up to tempo, To design a realistic but unique exchange, I A.J. Bodnar would play piano and bring along his contacted traditional musicians and dancers I knew accordion and endless enthusiasm. had preceded us in China—Grigsby Wotton, Phil Jamison, and Al and Alice White.
    [Show full text]
  • The Construction of Touristic Modernity in Xizhou
    Student Publications Student Scholarship Fall 2016 The onsC truction of Touristic Modernity in Xizhou Katherine E. Benton Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship Part of the Chinese Studies Commons, Tourism Commons, and the Tourism and Travel Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Benton, Katherine E., "The onC struction of Touristic Modernity in Xizhou" (2016). Student Publications. 478. https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/student_scholarship/478 This open access student research paper is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The onsC truction of Touristic Modernity in Xizhou Abstract Tim Oakes’ (1998) concept of touristic modernity accurately describes how the Chinese national discourse surrounding tourism, as both a tool for economic growth and nation-building, has shaped what the local reality has become for many towns and villages in the peripheral regions of China, especially those with large populations of ethnic minorities. Specifically in the Dali Bai Autonomous Region, foreign tourism followed by nostalgia-fueled domestic tourism has transformed Dali into a commercialized tourist destination, which has begun to spill out to other towns around the lake such as Xizhou. Touristic modernity is not, however, a singular homogenous force that culturally and physically transforms a given location overnight; instead, the construction of touristic modernity is a process that involves multiple contributing actors. In Xizhou, where the construction of touristic modernity is in its beginning stages, three main actors who are contributing to this process can be identified: domestic tourists, the Linden Centre, and local people.
    [Show full text]
  • Scaling Social Entrepreneurship in China
    Scaling Social Entrepreneurship in China Commissioned by: Generous support from: British Council, China Centre for Innovation in Voluntary Action China Philanthropy Research Institute at Beijing Normal University International Centre for Social Franchising Leping Foundation TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 INTRODUCTION 4 REPLICATING THROUGH 41 A Message from the Sponsor FRANCHISING Executive Overview Replication About the Authors Overview Goals & Methodology Models of Replication Working Definitions Wholly Owned Affiliation GROWTH AND SCALABILITY 12 Dissemination ICSF’s Five Stages of Social Replication Scalability in China SUPPORTING REPLICATION 50 Keys to Scale Role of Government Clarity of Vision and Value Proposition Role of Intermediaries Proof of Concept Role of Donors & Investors Models of Replication Role of Business Legal Structure Business Leadership Investment in Process Localization of Platform CONCLUSIONS 61 Leadership Capacity Team Capacity Right-Sized Funding APPENDICES 63 Government Alignment Appendix A: Target List Appendix B: Organization Profiles icsf social entrepreneur 4 china landscaping INTRODUCTION A MESSAGE FROM THE SPONSOR 5 If there is a problem in society, we should all be trying to find now creating a network of branches and affiliates across the world – solutions. If there are needs, we should all be doing our best to meet already established in the USA, South America, Kenya, South Africa, them. Government, business, social organizations and individuals Australia and now in China. can all play a part in creating solutions to these problems or needs – whether the issue is global warming, response to natural disasters, China presents a huge opportunity for successful socially-minded support for people with special needs and disabilities or the general enterprises to scale up their work.
    [Show full text]
  • TRAVELER in the SUNSET CLOUDS Photographs by JAMES WHITLOW DELANO
    The Indiana Jones of imperial China has become a modern pop-culture celebrity by TONY PERROTTET TRAVELER IN THE SUNSET CLOUDS photographs by JAMES WHITLOW DELANO 2 SMITHSONIAN.COM | Monthtk 0000 nature. He would pause on his jour- night. So I decided to follow Xu Xiake’s nism lives on: Lijiang has reinvented TO CONJURE THE LOST WORLD OF IMPERIAL CHINA, ney to watch a stream flowing. He just own travel route to find any vestiges itself as China’s most raucous party you might resort to the tales of Marco Polo, that famed Venetian interloper and fabulist. But wanted to contemplate the world.” of his classical Yunnan, hoping that town, with an ambience resembling a you could find a more intimate view in the lively work of the most revered ancient Chinese Xu Xiake’s last and most ambitious the changes over the last 375 years Shanghai nightclub. Its ancient store- road trip was to Yunnan, which hap- wouldn’t require too many creative fronts have been lovingly restored, but travel writer of all, Xu Xiake (pronounced “Syoo Syah-kuh”), hailed by his growing number of pens to be on the front lines of Chinese leaps of imagination. behind the delicate lattice shutters are modern admirers as, among other things, “imperial China’s Indiana Jones” on account of his tourism today. This scenic province in karaoke bars, where singers compete the foothills of the Himalayas was par- In China, any destination that has been over loudspeakers, wailing along to death-defying adventures. Born in 1587, he was an imposing figure, over six feet tall and as ticularly difficult to reach in Xu’s time “discovered” is affected on a staggering Korean pop.
    [Show full text]