Preserving the spirit of the historic city of Macao: Complexity and Contradiction(s)

Imon, Sharif S., DiStefano, Lynne D. and Lee, Ho-Yin (2008) Preserving the spirit of the historic city of Macao: Complexity and Contradiction(s). In: 16th ICOMOS General Assembly and International Symposium: ‘Finding the spirit of place – between the tangible and the intangible’, 29 sept – 4 oct 2008, Quebec, Canada. [Conference or Workshop Item]

Preview

PDF 77-X5iu-182.pdf Download (148kB)

Abstract (in English)

The preservation of an historic urban area is always a complex problem for site managers who are very often concerned with only the tangible dimension of heritage; preserving the spirit of the place is seldom a priority for them. The process is particularly complex in a rapidly growing casino cum World Heritage city like Macao where competing development priorities coupled with constantly changing demographics are posing a unique challenge to those responsible for the protection of the city’s cultural heritage. By drawing references from Macao, this paper argues that a 'preservation' approach to the protection of the spirit of a historic urban area is not only complex but also flawed as this defeats the real meaning of the Spirit of a Place and concludes that the Spirit of a Place is not something to be 'preserved', but rather to be guided through its own evolutionary path.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Authors:	Authors Email Imon, Sharif S. UNSPECIFIED DiStefano, Lynne D. ldistefa@hku.hk Lee, Ho-Yin hoyin@hku.hk
Languages:	English
Keywords:	historic town centre; World Heritage List; preservation; spirit of place; intangible heritage; local community; tourists
Subjects:	M.WORLD HERITAGE CONVENTION > 03. World Heritage List O.INTANGIBLE HERITAGE > 01. Generalities H.HERITAGE TYPOLOGIES > 13. Historic town centres E.CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION > 05. Sites
Name of monument, town, site, museum:	Historic Centre of Macao, China
UNESCO WHC Number:	1110
ICOMOS Special Collection:	Scientific Symposium (ICOMOS General Assemblies)
ICOMOS Special Collection Volume:	2008, 16th
Depositing User:	Jose Garcia
Date Deposited:	16 Sep 2010 09:20
Last Modified:	26 Jul 2023 13:37
References:	Cultural Affairs Bureau. 2006. Macao World Heritage: Information Kit. Available at http://www.macauheritage.net/indexE.asp; accessed 22 June 2008. DICJ (Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau). 2008. History. Macao: Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, Government of Macao SAR. Available from http://www.dicj.gov.mo/EN/index.htm; accessed 21 April 2008. Lahiri, Jhumpa. 2008. Unaccustomed Earth. New York; Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf. Lamas, Rosmarie Wank-Nolasco. 1999. History of Macau: A student's manual. Macau: Institute of Tourism Education, 1999. Lewis, R.W.B. 1995. The City of Florence. New York: Henry Holt and Company. Loh, Laurence. 2007. Conveying the Spirit of Place. In Asia Conserved: Lessons Learned from the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation (2000-2004), ed. Richard A. Engelhardt and Montira Horayangura Unakul. Bangkok: UNESCO Bangkok.
URI:	https://openarchive.icomos.org/id/eprint/142

Actions (login required)

View Item

Metadata

• HTML Citation
• ASCII Citation
• Full
• OpenURL ContextObject
• EndNote
• BibTeX
• MODS
• MPEG-21 DIDL
• EP3 XML
• Dublin Core
• Reference Manager
• Eprints Application Profile
• Simple Metadata
• Refer
• METS

Downloads