Ancient Routes, New Gateways: A Systematic Literature Review of China’s Cultural Route Heritage

Abstract

This study attempts to understand how cultural route heritage is conceptualized and managed in China by systematically reviewing the research literature on Chinese cultural route heritage. It intends to bring the topic to the attention of international academia and to inspire further discussion on the theoretical and practical development of cultural routes. A total of 253 research articles related to Chinese cultural rote heritage from major Chinese and English research databases CNKI, WOS and Scopus have been comprehensively identified and reviewed for the purpose of the study. Four major themes of research on Chinese cultural route heritage have been identified: conceptual evaluation, list of the routes and their characteristics, conservation, utilization. The results revealed that China has very rich resources in cultural route heritage, many of which were formed a long time ago, exist across vast geographic regions, have assumed multiple functions and have undergone dynamic reciprocal exchanges among diverse cultures and ethnicities. This paper identifies nineteen cultural routes based on ICOMOS’ conceptualization and the major challenges faced by cultural route heritage in China. Besides, it proposes a strategic model to address the need for a more sustainable development of cultural route heritage in the Chinese context.