Paper short abstract:

Tracing rice and bread - most essential food elements in China and Estonia - and the food heritagization process in two rural communities, this paper explores how the dissonant and ambiguous label of "the rural" as heritage is perceived, presented and negotiated comparatively in the two countries.

Paper long abstract:

Heritage is not only the cultural transmission of a thing but also a system of practices and skills as well as a symbolic estate (sets of ideas and values, rights and ownerships, persona and status). Despite their geographical distance, differences in size of territory, scale of population and trajectory of history, China and Estonia both have profound agricultural backgrounds in history and strong discourses on "catching up" with "the developed west" and booming development projects on building modernity after becoming independent nations. Along with the pursuit of progress and advancement, “the rural”, as a part of the (individual and national) past and identities, has become a site with ambiguous emotions and dissonant meanings. Tracing the heritagization process of white rice cake (Mi-gao) and dark rye bread (Leib) separately in two small places, Xin-ye - a national-listed historical-cultural village in eastern China and Kihnu - a World Heritage island at the southwest end of Estonia, I explore people’s understandings and usages of rural traditional food as well as different socio-cultural changes the two communities experience as heritage space. By comparing the two cases, I wish to show how the heritage of rural identities and rural life are being perceived, presented and negotiated similarly and differently in the midst of various social changes unique in or shared by the two countries. I would further give some reflections on the limits and challenges rural communities face when seeking a sustainable development with the ambiguous and dissonant label of “rural” in heritagization process.