Historic Urban Landscape in Beijing: The Gulou Project and Its Contested Memories

The chapter scrutinizes public reactions to two successive projects (2010 and 2012) that seek to transform the urban fabric of Gulou neighbourhood in Beijing. By discussing collective memory (through lived and embodied experience of heritage and community’s attachments to the place), it provides insights into the complex and evolving relationship between official, professional and local narratives and memories of its inhabitants. The study analyses the role and power of different actors involved in the urban redevelopment and the heritage management. Its conclusion sheds light on local heritage categories and on the asymmetry between relocation and preservation issues.