Objective This research explores the modern concept of heritage, combining objective existence and subjective perception, within a global-national-local framework. Heritage interpretations often overlap and conflict due to varying perspectives across these levels. Landscape anthropologist Hirotake Kawai’s “Multi-phase” concept explains the cognitive collisions and integrations that occur during heritage discourse exchanges. Landscape anthropology distinguishes between “space” (globalization) and “place” (localization), reflecting how external forces shape environments versus how locals perceive and construct their surroundings. In this context, heritage interpretation involves reconciling diverse cultural perspectives.The research uses Suzhou Gardens as a case study to develop a multi-subject heritage interpretation system within a pluralistic discourse framework. Suzhou Gardens are selected for their cultural duality and rich environment. The aim is to reconstruct the heritage discourse, facilitating dialogue between Suzhou Gardens and the world heritage system while considering the cognitive differences of various stakeholders, including local communities. This approach enhances the integration of internal and external perspectives in landscape anthropology and fosters a multi-party dialogue mechanism.
Methods Methodologically, the research focuses on three groups: supra-local authorities, tourists, and residents. It analyzes heritage discourse through two dimensions: “space production” by external entities and “place construction” by local society. Official texts are examined using a heritage value framework and word frequency-weighting methods to create a policy-value analysis for the supra-local and higher-level perspectives.Tourist perspectives are analyzed through digital footprint data, categorizing gardens into core, transitional, and peripheral types. Semantic network analysis evaluates heritage cognition. Resident perspectives are studied via garden classification, semi-structured interviews, and coding systems. The Kano model is applied to categorize residents’ heritage cognition into demand attributes, refining the overall interpretive framework.
Results The research finds that the supra-national and national perspectives, which correspond to the “ space” principle in landscape anthropology, emphasize describing heritage forms and relationships from a macro-level viewpoint. The supra-national perspective focuses on regional representation and cross-cultural exchange in heritage, while the national perspective highlights national symbolism and the artistic value of Chinese aesthetic ideals in Suzhou Gardens. From the local perspective, tourists’ heritage cognition is primarily influenced by supra-national and national perspectives, with heritage characteristics becoming the most perceived elements during visits. However, deeper cultural experiences and local perceptions are often weakened by superficial visits, leading to fragmented heritage interpretation. Tourists thus form their classification system for heritage sites during visits, abstracting historical and artistic values as the primary content of Suzhou Gardens’ heritage interpretation. In core gardens, tourists and residents share similar heritage values, but the influx of tourists compresses the ability of local residents to construct the connotation of gardens, turning these gardens into spaces of heritage consumption. In transitional gardens, there is overlap but also divergence in the needs of tourists and residents, creating potential for symbiotic space – place relationships. In peripheral gardens, significant differences in values between tourists and residents suggest a shift toward place construction by locals, reflecting the self-construction process of the local society.
Conclusion This research demonstrates that a heritage interpretation method under a pluralistic discourse framework can break free from authoritative heritage discourse that typically focuses on management and indoctrination, and can encourage the inclusion of multiple stakeholders who consider the public attributes of heritage protection. The structural relationships and conflicts between local practice and external production in Suzhou Gardens show that heritage landscapes involve both local self-construction (place) and external social production (space). For sustainable world heritage protection, it is essential to balance expert-driven heritage value assessments with public engagement, particularly by incorporating local emotions and community memories into heritage discourse. This may facilitate the creation of a more integrated and diversified heritage system that better reflects the complexity of contemporary heritage values and supports its sustainable development.
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