Finding an ecomuseum ideal for Hainan Province: Encouraging community participation in intangible cultural and natural heritage protection in a rural setting in China Katharina Massing A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Arts & Cultures Newcastle University April 2016 i ABSTRACT Initiated in France by Hugues de Varine and George Henri Rivière in the late 1960s, the ecomuseum ideal represents a locally-based, holistic approach to heritage protection and sustainable development. China established its first ecomuseums in 1998 in Guizhou Province, as a tool to balance rural development and heritage protection in the economically-weaker ethnic-minority areas . Since then several variations of an ecomuseum-like ideal have been employed in different provinces. This research project analyses one of the newer approaches to ecomuseology in China, examining the current establishment of ecomuseums in Hainan Province, China. The focus of the ecomuseum ideal in Hainan, the strong connection between ICH and its ecological environments, is new in the Chinese ecomuseum approach. This research analysed the opportunities and challenges of this new ecomuseological approach in China with regards to the safeguarding of ICH within its natural environments; sustainable tourism and ecotourism development; and, community participation. Two of the six proposed future ecomuseums were chosen as case studies; namely Baili Baicun in Ding’an County and Binglanggu in Boating Li and Miao Autonomous County. The data collection process included a combination of literature review, the analysis of laws and guidelines, observation and qualitative interviews with the three main stakeholders of the ecomuseum establishment in Hainan Province: government officials; experts; and, the local population composed of members of the local Hainanese community and Li ethnic-minority members associated with the two case studies. This research makes a contribution to the field in several respects. It examines the ecomuseum in terms of safeguarding ICH within its natural environments in China. While there is already some literature that investigates ecomuseums and ICH protection in the country, their role in protecting ecological environments in China is largely ignored. This research concludes that a stronger interpretation and focus on natural environments is essential for ecomuseum-like approaches in China. In addition, this research argues that the current ecomuseum principles concentrate on a Western understanding of the ecomuseum ideal and are not applicable to the top-down developmental context of China. Therefore, the research suggests new ecomuseum principles for Hainan, placing a stronger emphasis on education and benefit-sharing. i ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my supervisors, Gerard Corsane and Aron Mazel, for their constant support, guidance, time, motivation and feedback throughout the project. I am particularly grateful to Gerard whose expertise guided this research and who helped to facilitate the most important contacts for the field work. Thank you to all the government officials, experts and local community members who agreed to participate in this research, who were incredibly welcoming and patient with my sometimes awkward Chinese. Without you, this research would not have been possible. I am particular grateful to Hainan Normal University and to Professor Zhang Yiping and Professor Hu Suping for collaborating with me on this research, for their overall support, their kindness and their advice on organising interviews and case-study visits. I would also like to thank my research assistant, Jiang Man, who was a big support in leading me around the case studies and helping to formulate follow-up questions. Huge thanks go to Chunzi and her parents for their invaluable friendship, for making me feel welcome in Hainan and also for the countless support regarding my research from prep talks through translation and transcription help. I am grateful to my fellow PhD researchers at Newcastle University, who provided a stimulating research environment and made working in the basement a lot more fun. To my amazing friends, thank you for listening to all my anxieties and plans for this PhD over the last four years and providing much needed distractions. Ola and Nicola, thank you for our regular ‘club meetings’. Jona, Nanine, Birte and Patrick, thank you for the Skype calls, visits, constant encouragements and being there for me. Last but not least, I’d like to thank my parents and my brother, who supported me in every possible way and always believed in my ability to finish this PhD. Without their support I would not have been able to undertake this project and I am eternally grateful for this. iii iv RESEARCH MOTIVATION I have always been interested in China, in particular in Chinese cultural traditions. I registered for Chinese Studies as my undergraduate degree. I studied and worked in China for over two year. During that time I travelled the country extensively and visited many different heritage sites, examples include: the Great Wall of China; the Forbidden City in Beijing; and, Jiuzhaigou Nature Reserve. One topic that caught my interest during these visits was the seemingly different understanding of heritage protection, museology and tourism between China and western countries. Intrigued by this topic I analysed the problematic relationship between heritage protection and tourism development in Chinese towns and villages in my master’s thesis. This research led me to engage with the ecomuseum ideal that had been established in several villages in China. It seemed to offer a way to overcome the conflicts between heritage protection and tourism development in China that came from the top-down approach to heritage protection. I was therefore interested in investigating if the ecomuseum could indeed contribute to the protection of heritage and give the local population a stronger voice in heritage protection and tourism development in China. Hainan was chosen as a case study, because of the province’s relationship with Newcastle University, which made it easier to gain access to the relevant people. Hainan Province and the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (ICCHS) had cooperated successfully before in the En-compass Project, which worked with four different regions, namely China, North-East England, Guyana and Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa to work together in identifying and protecting examples of heritage resources under thread. v GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SPECIFIC TERMS Abbreviations CCP – Chinese Communist Party CNTA – China National Tourism Administration E – Expert ECPZ - Ecological cultural protection zones GO – Government Official HPICEC - Hainan Provincial International Cultural Exchange Centre ICH – Intangible Cultural Heritage ICHC - UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage LH – Local Hainanese LICH - Intangible Cultural Heritage Law of the People's Republic of China LM – Li minority NCTZ – Nanshan Cultural Tourism Zone PRC – People’s Republic of China SACH – State Administration of Cultural Heritage SAR – Special Administrative Region SEZ – Special Economic Zone UNESCO - United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Chinese Terms baohu – preserve bayin - eight kinds of orchestral instruments nongjiale – ‘Happy Farm House’ peitong – Research assistant appointed by a Chinese University or government institution to accompany foreign researchers during their field work. Qilou – arcade architecture qiongju – Hainan Opera shengcun – survival shengtai – ecology vi shengtai bowuguan – ecomuseum yuan shengtai - original ecology zhenxing – revitalise ziran shengtai bowuguan – Nature ecological museum zongzi - glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves Please note that the original spelling and grammar has been retained within quoted sources. vii Table of Contents ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................................. iii RESEARCH MOTIVATION ................................................................................................. v GLOSSARY OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SPECIFIC TERMS .............................................................. vi LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ......................................................................................... xii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research question and themes ........................................................................... 1 1.2 Research aims and objectives .............................................................................. 2 1.3 An introduction to the ecomuseum ideal and the Chinese ecomuseum development ................................................................................................................ 5 1.4 The study area – China and Hainan ................................................................... 20 1.4.1 Geography and Population .......................................................................................... 20 1.4.2 Economy .............................................................................................................. 25 1.4.3 Case Studies: Baili Baicun and Binglanggu ............................................................. 27 1.5 Significance of the research..............................................................................