ASEAN cultural heritage - forging an identity for realisation of an ASEAN community in 2015?

This paper examines whether cultural heritage can be used as a mechanism for developing a transnational ASEAN identity in addition to the nationality of each ASEAN Member Country (AMC) in order to promote unity in the establishment of the ASEAN Community by 2015. It focuses on cultural issues, particularly intangible cultural heritage (ICH) such as cuisine, in this context, and the relevance of these issues to a variety of ASEAN declarations and other soft instruments on cultural heritage.