The soul of a heritage community : the intangible cultural heritage of Huangling ancient town in Wuyuan county, Jiangxi province, China

Abstract

The topic of this dissertation is about a heritage place at the author’s hometown, known as Huandling Ancient Town, in the Wuyuan County, Jiangxi Province. Huangling Ancient Town, located in the northeast of Wuyuan County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province, was founded in the middle of the Ming Dynasty and has a history of nearly 600 years. It is the hometown of Cao Wenhani, the official of the Ministry of Household in the Qing Dynasty, and Cao Zhenbighi, the minister of military aircraft, a senior scholar, and the son of Prince Taishi (太师), all of which are recorded in the Chronicles of Wuyuan County. It is one of the ancient Hui-style villages in Wuyuan with a unique style, because its land is much bamboo, so it is named Huangling, which means “bamboo hill.” The local government has made good plans to develop the town for cultural tourism, but the author senses that an important cultural asset of the town has not been fully recognized, and it is the intangible cultural heritage of the town, which the author considers the heritage qualities that make this town an interest and valuable cultural treasure of China, and this is the scope of the research. Specifically, the research focuses on the identification and documentation of the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of the town, which can be an important asset for developing sustainable cultural tourism. As the topic of this dissertation is about the intangible cultural heritage as an asset for sustainable cultural tourism development, the literature review shall focus on the relationship between intangible cultural heritage and the case-study town, leading to the theoretical basis for this research. In addition, a literature review is also carried on sustainable cultural tourism for heritage towns and villages in China, and the author would like to take a more creative approach to use it for the concluding analysis of this research.