From street display to online discourse: the spatial trajectories of heritage as a resource for Chinese politics

Heritage in China is constantly scrutinized by the party-state, whose leadership is also exercised at the cultural level by imposing forms of revival, historical continuity, and timeless oblivion. Seizing the question of Chinese cultural uniqueness in the face of the intercultural nuances of contemporary global history, centralized politics started a process of selective display of cultural representations that re-invest the heritage of symbolic power. Drawing on this premise, this paper analyses the spatial trajectory of heritage visualization in China as the phenomenon has occurred over the last decade, unfolding the political economy behind it by taking Chongqing as a case study. Considering the real and the digital as complementary spaces of interaction and knowledge production, the paper highlights the epistemological importance of seeing heritage outside its materiality as a discursive practice of institutionalized rhetoric and identity. It focuses on the idea of heritage as a resource that may re-unite the different social components within a shared emotional space against the backdrop of alien cultural forms. At the same time, it sheds light on the embeddedness of political narratives in remaking cultural heritage as a controversial field for strengthening social interests.