The claim that heritage practice in Asia is Eurocentric may be well-founded, but the view that local people in Asia need to be educated by heritage practitioners and governments to properly conserve their heritage distracts from the responsibility of educating oneself about the local-popular beliefs and practices which constitute the bedrock of most people’s engagement with the material past. Written by an archaeologist who has long had one foot in the field of heritage practice and another in the academic camp of archaeology and heritage studies, Counterheritage is at once a forthright critique of current heritage practice in the Asian arena and a contribution to this project of self-education. Popular religion in Asia – including popular Buddhism and Islam, folk Catholicism, and Chinese deity cults – has a constituency that accounts for a majority of Asia’s population, making its exclusion from heritage processes an issue of social justice, but more pragmatically it explains why many heritage conservation programs fail to gain local traction. This book describes how the tenets of popular religion affect building and renovation practices and describes how modernist attempts to suppress popular religion in Asia in the early and mid-twentieth century impacted religious ‘heritage.’ Author Denis Byrne argues that the campaign by archaeologists and heritage professionals against the private collecting and ‘looting’ of antiquities in Asia largely ignores the regimes of value which heritage discourse has helped erect and into which collectors and local diggers play. Focussing on the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan but also referencing China and other parts of Southeast Asia, richly detailed portraits are provided of the way people live with ‘old things’ and are affected by them. Narratives of the author’s fieldwork are woven into arguments built upon an extensive and penetrating reading of the historical and anthropological literature. The critical stance embodied in the title ‘counterheritage’ is balanced by the optimism of the book’s vision of a different practice of heritage, advocating a view of heritage objects as vibrant, agentic things enfolded in social practice rather than as inert and passive surfaces subject to conservation.

At a time when organized heritage protection in Asia is developing at a rapid pace, Architectural Conservation in Asia provides the first comprehensive overview of architectural conservation practice from Afghanistan to the Philippines. The country-by-country analysis adopted by the book draws out local insights, experiences, best practice and solutions for effective cultural heritage management that will inform study and practice both in Asia and beyond. Whereas architectural conservation in much of the Western world has been extensively documented, this book brings together coverage of many regions where architectural conservation has been understudied. Following on from the highly influential companion volumes on global architectural conservation and architectural conservation in Europe and the Americas, with this book the authors extend their pioneering global examination to the dynamic and evolving field of architectural conservation in Asia. Throughout the book, the authors and regional experts provide local case studies and profile topics that bring depth and insight to this ambitious study. As architectural conservation becomes increasingly global in practice, this book will be of considerable assistance to architectural conservation practitioners, site managers and students of architecture, planning, archaeology and heritage studies worldwide.

Adaptive reuse refers to reusing an old building for a purpose other than which it was originally built or designed. This conservation approach has become increasingly popular around the world. However, there are few publications that focus on its application in Asia. This book fills this gap by looking at both unique and shared aspects of adaptive reuse in three Asian urban centers: Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore. Building on government policy documents and extensive field work, this book contextualizes adaptive reuse in each city and reveals the impetus behind a wide range of projects from revitalization in Hong Kong, commercial development in Shanghai, to community building in Singapore. The introductory chapter sets adaptive reuse within an international perspective, noting salient differences and similarities between Asia and other parts of the world. It also anchors the discussion within a regional perspective, focusing on the similarities and differences between Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Singapore. Each of the following four essays addresses a specific topic about adaptive reuse, including its relationship to urban development and sustainability, how it benefits heritage buildings, and how it reveals best practices in heritage conservation in Asia. The subsequent three essays, one for each city, supplemented with timelines, set out a clear framework for understanding the city-specific case studies that follow the essays. Afterwards, fifteen representative projects across the three cities are presented as in-depth case studies. The pairing of essays and case studies provides a detailed understanding of each city’s approach to adaptive reuse in the twenty-first century; a time when the need for sustainable development solutions are at the forefront. Intended for classroom use and professional readership, this book will be of considerable value in Asia, as well as elsewhere, providing material for stimulating and worthwhile discussion. “Asian Revitalization is a highly practical and accessible volume on the long-established conservation practice of adaptive reuse in East Asia. Its focus on real-life issues, examples, and challenges posed by revitalization programs in the region is extremely relevant to researchers and practitioners in architectural conservation, urban design, and urban studies.” —Miles Glendinning, University of Edinburgh, Scotland “This is a superb, well-documented, and original book written by some of the best-known and highly respected authors in the field of heritage conservation. The carefully examined case studies illustrate a wide variety of solutions that highlight the work of some of the best minds of the next generations.” —Alastair Kerr, University of Victoria, Canada “This is a most interesting set of essays, informative and thought-provoking. The best way to save any heritage building is by keeping it in beneficial use and how to achieve this in a sensitive manner is what these essays are about. They should be vital reading for anyone considering an adaptive reuse project in Asia.” —Michael Morrison, Purcell, UK “With cultural heritage firmly ensconced in the global development agendas of the United Nations, this well-grounded volume draws upon the experience of Hong Kong SAR, Shanghai, and Singapore to demonstrate to scholars and practitioners alike how historic properties can be sustained through savvy adaptive reuse in the midst of tremendous urban redevelopment pressures.” —Montira Horayangura Unakul, UNESCO Bangkok, Thailand

The cultivation of diverse farmers’ varieties/landraces, which tend to be well-adapted and suited to local production systems, confers increased resilience for crop production. Farmers’ varieties/landraces are also potential sources of traits for crop improvement, especially for developing varieties tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses and for incorporating farmer-preferred traits. Unfortunately, many of these genetic resources have been replaced by modern cultivars in recent decades, resulting in a reduction in the total number of different varieties grown and/or loss of heterogeneity. Such losses make farming systems less resilient, especially to shocks from abiotic and biotic stresses. These guidelines, intended as reference materials for preparing a National Plan for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Farmers’ Varieties/Landraces, will contribute to addressing this continuing loss of diversity. The guidelines are therefore a useful tool for development practitioners, researchers, students and policymakers who work on the conservation and sustainable use of these valuable resources.