Pre-Heritagisation and the Cultural Sustainability of Classical Suzhou Gardens During China’s Modern Transformation: A Study of Periodical Discourse, 1870–1948
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: The heritagisation of cultural landscapes is often understood as a state-led administrative process. At the same time, the discursive origins and adaptive mechanisms that precede formal designation remain underexplored, especially in relation to cultural sustainability. This study examines the pre-heritagisation of Suzhou’s classical gardens during China’s modern transformation by analysing periodical discourse published between 1870 and 1948. Using a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative content analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), it investigates 699 historical texts from the Index to Chinese Newspapers & Periodicals database. The findings reveal a dual discursive process. On the one hand, reports portrayed the gardens as accessible, multifunctional civic spaces through narratives of public use. On the other hand, literati discourse reinforced their classical value through historical memory and aesthetic preservation. Together, these tendencies show how the gardens were materially refunctioned and symbolically re-anchored under modern conditions. Rather than directly producing later heritage designation, this process helped create the socio-cultural conditions through which the gardens acquired broader public intelligibility, cultural legitimacy, and heritage-like meanings before formal institutional recognition.
Source: Sustainability
DOI: 10.3390/su18094282
Authors: Zhenzhen Guo, Zhengyi Tang, Jiamin Sun, Hongjun Zhou, Yijing Chen
Institutions: Tongji University, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,896
OpenAlex ID: W7158220643