CfP: Workshop „Wild, Domesticated, and Displayed: Animals and Cultural Heritagization in Ethnic Areas of China“2026.7.12 {en}
Wild, Domesticated, and Displayed: Animals and Cultural Heritagization in Ethnic Areas of China
International Workshop
28 May 2027
Paris, France (on site and online via Zoom)
Organizers: Valentina Punzi (École pratique des hautes études/CRCAO) and Aurore Dumont (Université Paris Cité/CRCAO)
Throughout the history of the People’s Republic of China, relationships between particular animal species and state-recognized ethnic minority groups (shaoshu minzu) have been shaped by cultural symbolism, environmental conditions, political agendas, and changing economic practices. More recently, cultural heritage policies, ecological conservation programs, and tourism development have transformed these relationships, granting certain animals new symbolic significance as markers of ethnic identity, regional culture, and environmental values.
Animals such as reindeer, camels, yaks, or snow leopards increasingly occupy prominent places in heritage discourse, ethnic tourism, museum displays, conservation campaigns, and popular media. Yet these public representations often differ from the lived realities of local communities, where human-animal relationships continue to be shaped by pastoral livelihoods, ritual practices, environmental pressures, and everyday negotiations. Examining these dynamics offers valuable insights into how local communities, state institutions, tourism industries, and conservation organizations collectively participate in redefining the meanings and roles attributed to animals in contemporary China.
Building on recent scholarship on cultural heritage in China’s ethnic minority regions and on human-animal relations in China, this workshop seeks to explore how processes of cultural heritagization reshape human-animal relationships across China’s ethnic borderlands and beyond. We welcome contributions addressing questions such as:
- How are animals used, represented, and consumed within heritage-making processes?
- How have relationships between ethnic groups and animals changed through contemporary political, economic, and environmental transformations?
- How do conservation policies, tourism, and heritage programs reshape the lives of both humans and animals?
- What forms of negotiation, contestation, and local agency emerge through these processes?
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- The changing role of animals in domestic and tourism economies
- Human-animal relationships in ethnic tourism
- Heritage narratives and lived realities
- Ethnic and animal otherness
- Transformations in animal symbolism from „ethnic“ to „regional“ heritage
We welcome case studies based on original ethnographic research conducted in China and/or analyses of primary written or oral sources in Chinese or minority languages. Contributions may focus on a particular region, one or several animal species, or one or more ethnic communities.
Submission guidelines
Please send:
- an abstract (approximately 300 words);
- a short biographical note (approximately 100 words).
Submission deadline: 30 October 2026
Notification of acceptance: December 2026
Submissions should be sent to:
animals.ethnic.heritagization[at]gmail.com
The workshop language will be English.
There is no registration fee. One lunch and one dinner will be provided for all participants. Participants are expected to arrange and cover their own travel and accommodation expenses. The organizers will make every effort to secure funding to help offset these costs, but no financial support can be guaranteed at this stage.
The organizers intend to publish selected contributions as either a special issue or an edited volume. Participants will therefore be asked to circulate draft papers one month before the workshop.
Source: CfP workshop „Wild, Domesticated, and Displayed: Animals and Cultural Heritagization in Ethnic Areas of China“, H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online „CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.“
