World Heritage in reverse. Study on how Taiwan used World Heritage paradigms in national law and foreign diplomacy

Since UNESCO launched the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972, it has not only built up a platform for transnational cooperation in heritage protection, preservation, and education, but has also created a powerful international reference for heritage definition. Scholars have criticised the paradigms1 used by UNESCO for universalising the definitions and typologies of heritage and standardising the conservation approaches based on European philosophy, without taking into account different interpretations in diverse cultural contexts.