Anthropologist Suvi Rautio’s The Invention of Tradition in China – Story of a Village and a Nation Remade is a vivid rural case study where she explores the invention of Chinese tradition and how Chinese state uses this tradition.
In China, heritage projects are sprouting across the countryside carrying the promise of Xi Jinping’s “Chinese dream” as a call for the great revival and rejuvenation of the nation. This book unravels the workings behind these promises through the story of remaking Meili, a Dong ethnic minority village nestled along the margins of China, into a “Traditional Village” heritage site. In a past riven by deep political and societal disruptions, Meili becomes a medium for contesting, mediating and continuously inventing representations of tradition that aligns with the Chinese Communist Party’s mission towards continuity and stability. The outcome is an original depiction of the compromises that shape heritage-making in a rural ethnic corner of China. Filled with rich, fine-grained narrative and analysis, Suvi Rautio offers a unique lens to the politics of inventing tradition and its far-reaching consequences in steering China’s national identity under Xi Jinping rule.
- Author: Suvi Rautio, University of Helsinki
- Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Singapore
- Language: English
- Pages: 260
- eBook ISBN: 978-981-97-3839-7
- Published: 26th August 2024
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-3839-7
