1. From Preservation, Revitalization to Reproduction: Assessment on different heritage conservation approaches in China, Hong Kong and Japan
Fifth Asian Conference on the Arts and Humanities, Osaka, Japan, April 3-6, 2014.
Dr. Michael W. H. Chan
Department of General Education
Hang Seng Management College, Hong Kong

2. From preserving history, to protect the Heritage
Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations, holding the history of the people and the place.
This research is aimed to conduct an assessment on different heritage conservation approaches, as to examine their ability on preserving heritages’ tangible and intangible contents, authenticity, and their historical value.

3. Key questions examined
What are the strength and weakness on different conservation approaches?
To what extent the historical value of both tangible and intangible heritage can be conserved by different approaches?
How can these approaches of heritage conservation arouse the public alertness on the heritages’ historical value without compromising their authenticity?

4. Different Approaches on Conservation
Original heritage is rebuilt but is completely new
Rebuilding Heritage on current site with modern techniques
Only keeping the physical site, but losing the intangible content of the site…
The intangible content of the site is preserved, but is it a real “heritage”?
Tangible Site Reproduction
without preserving the intangible heritage
Intangible
Heritage Conservation on a newly built site
Preservation & Rehabilitation repair the as original usage & materials
Revitalization of the original site with different new usage
Seems to be the perfect approach, but it is also the most expensive option
Can keep the original site, but it may destroys the authenticity of the site

5. The New Yuen Ming Garden
Tangible Site Reproduction from the original Yuen Ming Yuen in Beijing, destroyed during the Second Opium War.
The new site is a 1:1 reproduction, built as preserving history (mainly for tourism) at Zhuhai, Guangdong.

6. SCAD Hong Kong Campus : North Kowloon Magistracy
A conversion of the original court house into a modern digital arts college without changing any old structure, but adding a new usage and value in it.

7. Wan Chai Market Revitalization

8. Chi Lin Nunnery and Nam Lin Garden: Intangible Heritage Conservation
Completed in 1998 and respectively, they demonstrate one of the most successful cases of preserving Intangible Cultural Heritage from 1,000 years old Tang China, through Nara Japan, to Hong Kong.

9. Osaka Castle (up) and Hiroshima Castle (left), fine examples of Rebuilt Heritage that keeping the authenticity and history

10. Himeji Castle: Preservation and Rehabilitation

11. The Himeji Castle 姫路城
The Castle is widely considered Japan's most spectacular castle.
Unlike many other Japanese castles, Himeji Castle was never destroyed in wars, Shogun politics（一國一城令）, earthquakes or fires and survives in its original form.
It is both a national treasure and a UNESCO world heritage site.

12. The Himeji Castle: Repair works
Meiji restoration of 1868
military facilities installed in and around the castle
1945: replaced by public buildings, but the inner buildings were not touched and retained their 17th-century form
Large repair works on 1934 &
Current repair works

13. Himeji Castle "Egret's Eye View"
As a by-product of the major renovation carried out on the castle keep's roof and walls from April 2010 until March 2015
A large scaffold structure is covering up the entire main castle keep. The interior of the castle keep is completely or partially closed to tourists
Visitors are able to access the observation deck in the scaffold structure, and the renovation works can be observed

16. Repair as original approach: Major repair works: Rebuilding entire roofing and plaster wall Using original material and technique, with modern quality standard

17. Evaluation on different approaches
Types
Tangible Site Reproduction
Revitalization
Intangible
Heritage Conservation
Rebuilding Heritage
Preservation & Rehabilitation
Protection on Heritages
Neither Tangible nor intangible parts
Mostly Tangible but limited to the intangible part
Mainly intangible parts
Partly tangible and intangible parts
Both tangible and intangible
Authenticity
Limited value on keeping the original tangible and intangible heritage
Moderate value, depends on the degree of the site’s new usage
Could be high on preserving the intangible heritage like craftsmanship
High on preserving the historical value of the site, but limited on the heritage itself
High on preserving Both tangible and intangible heritage parts
Cost
Relatively low, since most of them are modern building replica
Varied, depends on the standard of repair works, but can be supported by the revenue from the new usage
High as to keeping the old technique
High as rebuilding the heritage completely, but lower than P&R and IHC
Very high. Regular and frequent maintenance and repair works are needed

18. Discussion
It is essential for employing different preservation approaches for protecting various tangible and intangible heritages.
The key points are: Authenticity and Appropriate
Diverse interests from different stakeholders: The administration, policy makers, tourism sector, visitors and the host, may make advantage on heritage conservation, yet it also a great challenge on heritage conservation, so as to preserve the history related.