Small Settlements in China. Heritage, Forms, and Counterstories

China’s contradictory attitude toward its past oscillates between cultural indifference – and even iconoclasm – with a great sense of continuity and, more recently, a real heritage fever. Twenty years have passed since the first two Chinese villages were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The country is now eminent in the discourse on World Heritage and is experiencing a national rural revival on a grand scale. World Heritage properties in China already include 30 villages, with more than 75 other potential nominations on the national Tentative List, while the number of villages recognized by national institutions is even larger. However, rural heritage recognition is just the tip of the iceberg of a more extensive planning process that aims to solve a dramatic development imbalance between rural and urban conditions. Due to this, Small Settlements in China: Heritage, Forms, and Counterstories aims at showcasing a comprehensive survey of Chinese villages and examine the role that small settlements play in the current national development framework and the physical transformations that occurred in the recent past.