ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the conceptualisation, application and implications of ephemerality in landscape studies. It focuses on the contrasts between rural and urban settings, and natural and cultural agency in the creation of phenomena that, although transient, were nevertheless culturally meaningful and significant for human communities. The chapter discusses explorations of both rural and urban ephemerality within the landscape studies' and associated literatures and examines key aspects of the studies involved and their broader implications for present and future research. It examines how the meanings and values attached to ephemeral landscapes are generated, mediated and expressed through the situated performances of cultural practices or 'rituals'. The chapter describes a highly distinctive expression of urban ephemeral landscape in Hong Kong, the Kam Tin Jiao Festival, which is used to highlight important questions that are raised if people attempt to incorporate ephemera into notions of cultural heritage.
