Moynihan East Asia Program: Heritage Tourism in China

Moynihan East Asia Program presents: Dr. Robert Shepherd - Heritage Tourism in China

Dr. Richard Shepherd, Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, The George Washington University

In this discussion Dr. Shepherd will focus on tourism at the Buddhist pilgrimage destination of Wutai Shan in Shanxi, China. Now designated a national park and world heritage site, Wutai Shan attracts approximately four million annual tourists, the vast majority of whom are citizens of the PRC. Is this then a case of a once-sacred place that has been “Disneyfied” by mass tourism?

Robert Shepherd is editor of the journal Critical Asian Studies. He authored Faith in Heritage: Displacement, Development, and Religious Tourism in Contemporary China (Left Coast Press, 2013) and Partners in Paradise: Tourism Practices, Heritage Policies, and Anthropological Sites (Peter Lang, 2012). His current research examines structural and discursive connections between international human rights campaigns, environmentalism, and the world heritage movement.

Sponsored by the East Asia Program at the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs