HKKÅ03301U Cross-cultural Heritage Course

The course intends to look at different, non-western ways of understanding, organizing and exhibiting what is often labelled as “national heritage”, “national culture”, “cultural treasures”, “patrimony”, “civilization”, etc. Behind or underneath these terms are intermingled and diffused layers of senses of identity (personal and national), emotional ties, arbitrary cultural icons and—not least—shared histories, stories, languages and linguistic registers. The course focuses on Denmark, China, the Middle East, the Arabian Gulf and Mesoamerica for its theoretical components and uses China as its main practical case study.

Considering the current discourse on globalization, its synergies and conflicts, and its effects on the changing world order, the course aims to explore these and further issues and thus to promote

• Cross-cultural insights based on practical experience and theoretical discussions. Theoretical insights will build on concepts from studies of (re)presentation, translation, knowledge production, heritage, memory and identity in various contexts. Practical experience will be built up on the basis of and during a visit to China, when participants will have the opportunity to interact with local museums, their representatives as well as Chinese tourists.
• Reflections on the requirements of native and non-native museum visitors. The focus will be on non-Danish visitors to Danish museums/sites and non-Chinese visitors to Chinese museums/sites.
• A variety of approaches to modes of cultural exhibition. This will include not only the modes of exhibiting within a museum (choice of objects, placing of exhibits, explanatory texts, etc); it will also include aspects of the building of museums, architectural concepts and regional location.
• New global and cross-cultural partnerships between museum practitioners and their institutions. The interactions between museum practitioners in Denmark and China should ideally lead to small- and large-scale cooperation in the future between both individuals and institutions such as museums and cultural sites. 

Participants will be introduced to the practical and theoretical challenges involved in the topic and will develop tools with which to tackle these challenges. On the basis of this preparation the participants will take a study tour to China to visit the country’s leading museums and consult with colleagues there. The second part of the course comprises evaluation of the materials and impressions gained on site at Chinese museums and from interviews/discussions/activities with Chinese colleagues.