Between State and Society: Heritage Politics in Urban China

The interaction between state and society in urban Chinese heritage practices can be usefully examined through the insights of post-political scholarship, which draws attention to the lack of dissent between the state and civil society in Europe and America. With the shift to an Asian context, however, the concept of civil society warrants further examination, particularly with regard to the relation between state and society. Scholars, especially historians (Kuhn 1994; Strand 1990), often question the origin and nature of the term civil society and its effectiveness, particularly in non-western contexts, in analyses regarding the relation between state and society. This paper does not intend to define or question the concept of civil society and how it is practiced in China. Neither do I intend to celebrate the western narrative of democratic development or argue that China is an exceptional social environment, completely separate from Western discourse. Instead, the notion of civil society in this study serves as a device to analyse certain forms of communication between the state and society that can offer insight into how different Chinese societies function. Specifically, the chapter examines various examples of recent city developments and civic activities in Xi’an to understand how cultural heritage has been used as a soft but powerful tool for urban governance, whereby disagreements between societal actors and governing bodies have become obfuscated.