Made in China

This chapter considers the influence that tourist souvenirs have on cultural stereotyping and cultural seepage, and their role in creating, contesting, and defining heritage and cultural value. This created heritage is then appropriated by tourism and becomes part of touristic practices. The difficulties of locating and understanding heritage and culture are typified by the shifting narrative of souvenirs, a narrative which determines their value as well as contributing to slippery notions of the past. Souvenirs have cultural currency as a result of their origins and associations; however, notions of authenticity and representation are contested. This chapter aims to illuminate this in relation to the experience and interpretation of place, thereby questioning what heritage means to tourists in the 21^st century.