Deconstructing the heritagization of red tourism: from ‘themed’ to ‘theme’, the case of Mao Zedong’s rice field and home

Heritagization has been much canvassed in heritage tourism, with the focus centering on the potential impacts and mostly the negative side effects generated via the heritage meaning-making process. Few studies have examined the shifting process from ‘themed’ to ‘theme’ in heritagization. That is, how a heritage space has been gradually shifted away from its natural identity/character as a ‘themed space’ into the direction of a man-made ‘theme place’. Using the ‘Red Sacred Land’, the rice field of MaoZedong in Shaoshan, China, as an example, the first objective of this qualitative research paper is to explore the developmental process of a themed rice field that has been transformed into a theme place. The second objective is to examine how heritage users perceive the shifting process in which a rice field, where agriculture as the natural ‘theming’ is shifted into a political ‘Red Sacred Land’ in China. Findings shed light on the importance of finding a delicate balance between the ‘themed space value’ and the ‘theme place value’.