Contemporary Fabrication of Pasts and the Creation of New Identities? Open-Air Museums and Historical Theme Parks in the UK and China

This chapter examines the selective usage of history, relics and practice to reconstruct specific versions of the past. The open-air Beamish Museum in Durham, UK and the historical theme parks in Hangzhou and Kaifeng, China are used as comparative case studies to unpack first, how ‘heritage’ is conceptualised in each context, and second, how particular versions of the past are selected, (re)invented, disseminated and consumed for contemporary purposes. Set within a theoretical framework of ‘living heritage’ and an analytical framework of the overlapping themes of authenticity, identity and national pride, tourism and education, the chapter examines the different ways in which the appropriation of cultural heritage takes place at each site. In doing so, we draw attention to the disparate interpretations of conservation practice and the idea of ‘living heritage’ in the UK and China and debate their continued relevance in the contemporary heritage discourse.