ARI Working Paper Series

In an historic city, physical setting generates the uniqueness of a place, and the activities in the physical setting enrich its cultural value. Along with the demands of modernization, the development of heritage tourism indeed facilitates urban conservation in Asia, but it also challenges the meaning of the “authenticity” of an historic city. In the case of Pingyao, the society transformed and the function of buildings changed; yet, sense of place, in the form of collective memory, was always carried by traditional anchor buildings across generations. However, the memorable events popular among the present local population will not be shared by future generations due to the tourism-favored development policies. If the priority objective of preserving an historic city is to continue the existing local way of life in the 21st century, it is important to delineate the city’s authenticity from a viewpoint of the settlement’s integrity and to consider the authenticity in sense of place as the focus.

Full text is not available, this working paper is withdrawn, as it has now been published as ‘In Search of Authenticity in Historic Cities in Transformation: The Case of Pingyao, China’, Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 9(1), 2011, pp 13-25.