Authenticity, hegemony, and governance in the renovation of Kuanzhai Alley: a critical heritage studies perspective

Critical heritage studies has increasingly called for non-Western perspectives to examine how heritage discourse and practice operate. This paper contributes to this endeavour by investigating how heritage authenticity is semiotically constructed, hegemonically consolidated, and spatially governed in China. Drawing on the concepts of authorised heritage discourse, this paper analyses Kuanzhai Alley in Chengdu, a former residential neighbourhood that was transformed into a cultural tourism landmark after its renovation in 2008, to reveal the mechanism through which a selective past is legitimised while residents’ social continuity is systematically erased. The analysis unpacks three interconnected operations: the construction of authenticity, the operation of hegemony, and the governance of heritage. Together, these operations form a sophisticated mechanism through which the government, experts, and capital jointly transform heritage into a consumable imagination while eliminating the lifeworld of residents from both semiotic and material dimensions. In doing so, the paper shows how the erasure of local residential history, the presentation of selective authenticity, and their material realisation through spatial regulation converge to naturalise these exclusions.