Doing Gong culture. Heritage politics and performances in the central highlands of Vietnam
Author
Hoai Tran
Publisher
Berlin: LIT Verlag
Year of publication
2021
ISBN
978-3-643-91406-4
OPAC
Abstract
This book shows how the efforts of various actors in ‘doing Gong culture’ contribute to preserving the intangible heritage of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Tran’s research challenges the conventional perspective that views heritagization as a process of cultural appropriation in which local heritage practitioners become cultural ‘proprietors’, who in UNESCO’s view differ from ‘culture carriers’. He shows that local artists actively engage with other actors in the ‘heritage community’, thus contributing to the performance of a ‘living’ image of the ‘Space of Gong Culture’ on the heritage stage. In this intangible cultural heritage, practically, all actors are ‘culture carriers’.