ABSTRACT
Cultural heritage management does not operate in a void. A number of external social, cultural and human resource management issues, as outlined in earlier chapters, must be considered in order to better understand the impact of cultural affinities and differentiation on the development of CHM in Southern China. This chapter aims at explaining the nature of local conditions – which have shaped and are, in turn, shaped by cultural practices – in each of the case study cities, and how local conditions have helped to influence the way each of them approaches CHM. Such a discussion will help us understand what specific methods have been successfully cultivated locally and adopted, and what elements from among a plethora of global influences have been rejected, and why. To facilitate the discussion, it is necessary to identify, from a broad perspective, the major turning points in the development process of the Pearl River Delta region within the past fifty years. We will also re-visit some of the key themes already raised in earlier chapters and re-examine the underlying cultural dynamics that have brought about the ongoing activities that constitute the respective CHM frameworks, from the perspective of cultural affinity.
