Recognition and Misrecognition The Politics of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Southwest China

This chapter discusses how communities in northwest Yunnan are navigating heritage policies, showing different experiences and negotiations with the cultural heritage discourse. A discussion of Moso weavers in a northwest Yunnan village shows the intricate and complex ways heritage is understood and how this affects the local community. The label intangible cultural heritage , or transmitter of intangible cultural heritage , guarantees neither protection nor commercial viability for the time-consuming handicrafts. This chapter explores what heritage does or does not do to individuals, communities, and their cultural practices and products. It alerts us to the difficult tensions between transmission, innovation, protection, and commercial use, asking whether and how local communities have a say in the protection and development of their heritage.