Distinguishing the ‘A’ in authorised heritage discourse: cultural authority versus political authority

This paper seeks to contribute to unpacking the nuances of the concept of authorised heritage discourse by exploring the different, and even hierarchical, roles of different authorities and what authorises their heritage discourses. I look into a regeneration project in Anyang, a northern Chinese city where only the local state’s discourse was mostly realised, whereas heritage professionals’ discourse was relatively invisible. The immediate reason is that this project was initiated by the local state to pursue its economic and political agenda. The fundamental reason why the local state could ignore the heritage professionals, as I argue, lies in the fact that heritage professionals were only ‘authorised’ due to their cultural authority derived from professional knowledge, yet they did not possess political authority. Political authority derived from political power resided within the local state, which could largely and even solely determine how the project would be implemented. This finding first calls for further reflection on heritage professionals’ role regarding whether they are barriers to or facilitators of democratising heritage. Second, I highlight the importance of situating heritage projects into the political context and deeply understanding where political power comes from and how it operates to expand the investigation of heritage politics.