Huang, Han-yin
National Palace Museum
Taiwan
Local Initiatives and Intangible Heritage in Taiwan: Space between Theory and
Practice
This paper examines the understandings and uses of intangible heritage, or lack
thereof, as an expression of sense of place by local communities in Taiwan. The
concepts of place and ‘sense of place’ lend themselves to discussions of the
safeguarding of intangible heritage and of reducing the danger of removing
intangible heritage from its original context as well as the risk of freezing the
interactive elements between intangible heritage and its cultural bearers. Since its
adoption in 2003, the Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention was thought to be an
attempt to address the dominance of material forms of heritage in Western-led
heritage practices. It champions intangible heritage, which many researchers state to
align with the Eastern conceptualisation of heritage. Nevertheless, according to the
author’s fieldwork with local heritage initiatives in Taiwan, tangible heritage is still
the focus of these local heritage initiatives. The involvement of local initiatives in
heritage projects signals the changing dynamics of heritage ownership in Taiwan and
encourages a more bottom-up approach to heritage. However, despite the
broadening of theoretical definitions of heritage, scopes of actual heritage practices
can still be limited. Although human interactions and connections with place is what
these local initiatives emphasise, the channelling of local voices still rely primarily on
tangible heritage such as historic temples, industrial estates, and monuments., and
less on intangible aspects such as rituals, music, dances, and songs. This suggests a
gap between the theories and actual heritage practices in an East Asian society such
as Taiwanese society. In this paper, the author will examine the gap observed from
her experience within the Taiwanese heritage sector and investigate the causes of
this gap between theories and practices. The discussion in this paper will be
illustrated by data collected through qualitative interviews and on-site observation
with selected groups.