Page 65 - JCAU-7-3

Journal of Chinese

Architecture and Urbanism

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
“Creative” uses of heritage in the age of

experiential tourism: The case of Tianjin’s former
international concessions

1
Maria Gravari-Barbas * , Sandra Guinand 2,3 , and Yue Lu 3
1 IREST, EIREST, Paris 1- Panthéon Sorbonne University, Paris, France
2 Institute for Urban and Regional Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austrian
3 EIREST, Doctoral School of Geography, Paris 1- Panthéon Sorbonne University, Paris, France
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Glocalization: Urban Planning and Its Legacy in Modern
Chinese Port Cities)

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, heritage reuse for cultural purposes has become a widespread
phenomenon in major Chinese cities. Heritage-led projects aim to foster the
*Corresponding author: development of new urban functions, transforming historical spaces into magnets for
Maria Gravari-Barbas
(maria.gravari-barbas@wanadoo.fr) leisure and tourism. These government-led projects often attract local entrepreneurs,
who capitalize on heritage settings as a breeding ground for new activities, such as
Citation: Gravari-Barbas, M., design galleries, art and craft stores, cafés, gourmet restaurants, and microbreweries.
Guinand, S., & Lu, Y. (2025).
“Creative” uses of heritage in the Tianjin, a city 120 km south of Beijing, has embraced this trend by implementing
age of experiential tourism: The ambitious projects to preserve and enhance its former Western concessions (19 –
th
case of Tianjin’s former international 20 centuries). While the “creative” use of heritage is a common feature of both
th
concessions. Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism, Western and Chinese cities, Tianjin presents a particularly compelling case due to the
7(3): 3703. dissonant nature of its former concession heritage. This article analyzes the relationship
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3703 between creative (re)uses of heritage and cultural tourism in Tianjin’s former Western
Received: May 20, 2024 concessions. Specifically, it questions the influence of the re-functionalization of
1st revised: October 13, 2024 historical buildings in the former concessions, mainly for leisure and tourism purposes,
on their recognition as heritage. To address this, the study draws on four case studies
2nd revised: December 10, 2024 in Tianjin’s former Western concessions, employing qualitative data collected through
3rd revised: December 24, 2024 participatory and non-participatory observations, thematic analysis of institutional
Accepted: January 20, 2025 documents, and semi-structured interviews with officials and local stakeholders. The
findings highlight how creative uses of heritage could enhance tourism experiences
Published online: February 17, and contribute to economic and cultural revitalization. These practices might foster a
2025
deeper engagement with the past while supporting sustainable tourism development.
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s).
This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the Keywords: Creative use; Dissonant heritage; Experiential tourism; Concession; Tianjin; China
Creative Commons Attribution-
Non-Commercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all
non-commercial use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, 1. Introduction
provided the original work is
properly cited. The reuse of heritage has gradually become a common tool for local development and a
Publisher’s Note: AccScience means for city promotion (D’Ovidio & Cossu, 2017). Following China’s dramatic urban
Publishing remains neutral with transformation since the late 1990s, the adaptive reuse of heritage for cultural purposes has
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional become a widespread phenomenon in major Chinese cities (Bouteloup, 2011; Chen et al.,
affiliations. 2016; Fresnais, 2001). In recent years, Tianjin has launched ambitious projects to preserve

Volume 7 Issue 3 (2025) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3703