IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section A

Abstract

Heritage has been understood as a label for items, tangible and intangible alike, of historical, aesthetic and cultural significance, which allows consequent economic and urban development. Concurrently, critical heritage scholars comprehend heritage as a discourse that legitimises contemporary historical perspectives, critiquing it as being at the service of the power and the market. In the contestation between the governing and the grassroots over who is legitimate to speak on behalf of a heritage, between the communities’ memory and the authorised history of any ‘heritagised’ item—even ‘memory’ and ‘history’ themselves are subjected to be revised and re-narrated—a mode of understanding and practising time and space is revealed, where memory and history are intermingled, allowing, in turn, subsequent memory (re)making and history (re)writing. In this paper, complementing a philosophical discussion of the terms ‘memory’ and ‘history’, among others, with the case of Macau in its unique geo-political and cultural context, I argue that such a mode corresponds to the ‘phenomenon of heritage’, emergent in continuous practice, and ongoing relation between a specific event or item and a specific group of people. Simultaneously, ‘heritage’ becomes the in-between of memory and history. The triad of memory-heritage-history not only affords us a theoretical tool to delve into how people acknowledge time and their present being-in-the-world, but also sheds light on how heritage sites and items can be better conserved in a sustainable and human way, going beyond the understanding of ‘heritage’ as an imposing label and a value-laden discourse.