Risks and opportunities in rural heritage: the case of Yuanjia village’s built environment

This essay examines the regeneration of Yuanjia Village (Shaanxi) as a paradigmatic case for understanding the construction of collective memory in contemporary China. Initiated in 2007, the transformation intertwines tourism, community governance, and construction technologies, yielding a landscape that appears traditional while, in fact, it combines redevelopment strategies, market dynamics, and innovative processes. The project raises crucial questions and encourages reflection on authenticity as a relational and unstable category, shaped through selection and spectacularisation processes. The case study further illustrates the capacity of Chinese rural communities to reinterpret tradition in ways compatible with modernity, thereby assigning an active role to heritage in local development.