• Politics of the Past
• Material Culture
• Social memory
• Cultural Tourism
• Ethnicity
• Heritage and Religion
• Politics of Remembering and Forgetting 

Teaching Interests:

HUMN8033 Tourism, Heritage, and Globalisation

HUMN8019 World Heritage: Conserving Cultural Heritage Values

HUMN8027 Critical Issues in Heritage and Museum Studies

HUMN8037 Culture and Heritage in China Field School

As a scholar of anthropology and heritage studies, my research interests centre on heritage and its relation with politics, social memory, cultural tourism and religious practices. My first monograph Heritage and Romantic Consumption in China (Amsterdam University Press, 2018) explored the rise of ‘romantic consumerism’ in contemporary China. Chinese dissatisfaction with the urban mundane leads to romanticized interests in practices and people deemed to be natural, ethnic, spiritual and aesthetic, and a search for tradition and authenticity. https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789462985674/heritage-and-romantic-consumption-in-china

My second book Heritage Politics in China: The Power of the Past (Routledge, 2020; co-authored) considered the impact of heritage policies and discourses on the Chinese state and Chinese society. It sheds light on the way Chinese heritage policies have transformed the narratives and cultural practices of the past to serve the interests of the present. I have also co-edited a volume entitled Politics of Scale: New Directions of Critical Heritage Studies (Berghahn Books, 2019) explores how imagined or real spaces, territories and borders are constructed, defined and managed in diverse processes of heritage making. https://www.routledge.com/Heritage-Politics-in-China-The-Power-of-the-Past-1st-Edition/Zhu-Maags/p/book/9781138332706

My upcoming book project investigates the shifting and contested social memories of China’s recent past (1911-) through monuments, museums and heritage sites. I am also co-editing a volume entitled Heritage and Religion in East Asia (Routledge).

My recent journal publications include; ‘Uses of the past: Negotiating heritage in Xi’an’, (International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2018); Domesticating tourism anthropology in China’, (American Anthropologist, 2018); ‘Lifestyle mobility: Shifting conception of home in modern China’, (International Journal of Tourism Anthropology, 2018); ‘Cultural effects of authenticity: Contested heritage practices in China’, (International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2015) and ‘Performing heritage: Rethinking authenticity in global tourism’ (Annals of Tourism Research, 2012).

Before joining the ANU Center for Heritage and Museum Studies, I received my Ph.D. in Anthropology from Heidelberg University, Germany and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Australian Center on China in the World, ANU. I also worked as a heritage and tourism consultant in China, Spain and India. 

Sites of Memory and Nation Building

Since the early 20th century, heritage, museums and memorials have played active roles in constructing and reinterpreting the social memories of nation-states and sub-groups within the national population (Lowenthal 2015). Powerful state narratives are not monolithic and unchanging; rather they become lieux de mémoire (sites of memory) that adapt continuously to changing economic and political demands (Nora 1989; Winter 1995). Among the key questions that emerge from these shifting adaptations are: what kinds of narratives of the past are selected and interpreted for public display? How and why does the state turn historic events into ‘sites of memory’ for commemoration? A close investigation of these questions will help us understand the way in which mechanisms for the commemoration of the past – heritage, museums, memorials – become the foundation of modern nation-building.

Religion and Heritage in East Asia

While religious heritage occupied one fifth world heritage sites in East Asia, yet very little research examines the interrelationship between the two.This project analyses the socio-cultural and political consequences of heritagisation of religious sites and practices. What is actually being revived and what is being invented? How does this development affect religious spaces and the perception of religion in the public realm? Does heritage serve as a new tool for the state to control and regulate religious spaces? Or does heritage offer a fertile ground for religious revival? Does the heritage industry engender secularization and a loss of religious efficacy? Or do such commercial practices lead to innovation in religious-spiritual life?

Future of the Past: Heritage and Urbanization

The recent urban development in Xi'an illustrates how local authorities are rebuilding an imagined and ancient capital of China which is tied to the remote Tang dynasty, a symbol of the glorious Chinese civilization. Based on instrumental uses of the past, Xi'an has implemented heritage plans to create an aesthetically pleasing and economically valuable destination for display and consumption. This study contributes to an understanding of the contested nature of heritage in the rapidly shifting urban landscape of contemporary China.

I am currently supervising PhD students working on the following topics:

• The Silk Roads or Economic Belt: An Analysis of the Interaction Between China’s World Heritage and its Economic and Political Ambitions
• Imagine Dragons, the Transformation of Australian Imaginary of China 2010 – 2016
• Pursuing good life in this world: the aspiration of Daoist clerics in Longhu Shan, China
• Constructing a Divine Domesticity: Woman’s Messenger (1912-1951) and Her Republican Dreamers
• Mining development and social impact on Taiwan indigenous peoples
• The conversation of cultural landscape in Chengdu Plain under new countryside construction
• HUL Approach for Sustainable Managment of Chinese HIstoric Urban Centres with Colonial Backgrounds