关键词: 世界遗产, 矿业遗产, 遗产话语, 欧洲, 中国

Abstract:

Analyzing mining heritages on the World Heritage List is an effective way to learn this type of heritage and understand the international trends in heritage conservation. This study extracts 24 mining heritages by analyzing "Industrial and technical heritage in the World Heritage List" issued by ICOMOS and brief description of heritage sites announced by World Heritage Committee. Results of the analysis indicate: 1) Most of mining heritages are inscribed into the World Heritage List according to the Cultural Criteria ii, iii and iv; 2) The imbalance on spatial distribution of mining heritages is more serious than that on World Heritage List in the whole. Europe and North America have 16 items; Latin America and Caribbean have 7 items; Asia-Pacific has 1 item; Africa and Arab States has not yet got mining heritage on the World Heritage List; 3) Mining heritages on the World Heritage List have been selected from a long time span and most properties have long production history. These mining heritages mainly reflect the information and history of mining between 16th century A D to 20th century A D, and mining heritages formed before 9th century A D are ignored; 4) Heritages related with metal mining have occupied the majority of mining heritages on the World Heritage List and mining heritage towns and architectures are the main form of these mining heritages. These results reveal that the Euro-centric heritage discourse is prevalent in the process of valuing mining heritages when they are submitted for inclusion in the World Heritage List, which has led to the imbalance of mining heritages in the World Heritage List. Those suggests that heritages with outstanding universal significance should be associated with properties having connections with Europe in history, presenting the characteristics of European arts and architecture styles, and illustrating significant stages or (and) events in European history. It has also undervalued the mining heritages in some non-European cultural regions when this Euro-centric heritage discourse is viewed as the advanced experience in the international level and accepted without reservation. Realizing the problem of Euro-centralism in the world heritage affairs, the World Heritage Committee put forward the "Global Strategy" in 1994. In addition, this study points out that China is abundant in its mining heritages from the perspective of officially protected site/entity announced by governments at all levels, but until now China has no mining heritage on the World Heritage List. With the background of the global strategy of world heritage and the diversification of heritage discourse in the international level, this study puts forward some measures for Chinese mining heritages, such as strengthening the theoretic research and building suitable heritage discourses from Chinese actual conditions; conserving mining heritages relying on Chinese officially protected site/entity; launching special mining heritage programs and enhancing public awareness.

Key words: world heritage, mining heritage, heritage discourse, Europe, China