Keywords

history, resource, South China

Objectives

The phenomenon of expressing, depicting, and organizing "history", and its subsequent transformation into a resource, exists in every human society. The recently increased influence of China has had a worldwide impact. It has heightened interest in China and made the nation an urgent topic for study. In contemporary China, the homogeneity of the Chinese nation is being emphasized. Different fragments of "history" are often melded to construct "resources" for material gain. Several types of entities transform "history" into a resource. These include the different levels of government, researchers, intellectuals, mass media, and ordinary citizens; opposing entities that negotiate and compromise to form currents for transforming history into a resource. At the same time, the transformation of "history" into a "resource" produces a form of practical value. In addition it serves to legitimize and uphold the identities of these entities, each with its own perception of history. Based on the assumption that history is transformed within an ethno-local sociopolitical space, this study seeks to analyze critically the kind of "history" that is transformed into a "resource", and how various entities do this to secure material gain and maintenance of their identity.

Research Results

The histories covered by this joint study do not include written, formal records of phenomena or events found in texts documenting the history of successive Chinese dynasties, but rather, the written and unwritten, fragmented, nonofficial histories reflecting the collective memories, non-text resources, cultural landscapes, and environmental awareness of private individuals and groups. Furthermore, most of the materials and cultural resources associated with these histories had been prepared by private elites, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens.

Our joint study group assembled twice this year. The first meeting heard a report on a comparative analysis concerned with cultural landscapes and their transformation into resources. That analysis was based on a case study of terraced rice-paddy farming districts in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province and another case study on the Mien (Yao) people (an ethnic group inhabiting a district that straddles the border between two nation-states), and specifically the transformation of their history into a resource. The second study group assembled together with a collaborative research group involved in a research grant-funded project on the theme, "An anthropological study of the transformation of the history of a peripheral Chinese territory into a resource " (2015-2017; research coordinator: Shigeyuki Tsukada, Professor Emeritus with the National Museum of Ethnology). This meeting engaged in a multifaceted discussion of several topics, including the dynamics underlying the transformation of histories and memories into resources, the representations and practices of stakeholders involved in that transformational process, the variations in historical and cultural representation, and the correlations with nationalism and nostalgia.

These discussions shed light on the progressive transformation of history into a resource by nation-states and governments, ethnic groups, local communities, and stakeholders comprising various other social groups that are involved not only in the pursuit of economic gain or the fulfillment of political objectives but also in a quest to satisfy the public's need for cultural consumption in daily life. In other words, the diverse "histories" given expression in that vein resonate with identity politics and rapid globalization trends in the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres, but also incorporate significance as a reconstruction of formal discourse on connections with the homogeneity of the "Chinese people" as well as the historical past of various groups, and have been intricately interwoven into the multiple contexts of Chinese society. Moreover, they are distinguished by the feature of pluralism, not the monolithic versions based on ideology or official views of history, and include inconsistencies and contradictions that reflect diverse social conditions and complex relationships.