Introduction

This chapter introduces a personal (re)discovery of family heritage and history that has been ‘displaced’ and (re)placed in a number of ways in Wuhan over time. The key phase of the actual displacement of this family heritage took place around a period of human disaster, trauma and loss in the late 1930s and 1940s, brought about by war and conflict. Wuhan is the capital city of Hubei Province in the People’s Republic of China. Located at the confluence of the Han and middle reaches of the Yangtze Rivers, the area has a long and rich heritage. Its significance over time is noted in many of the historical accounts of Chinese and global history. Its geographical placement has meant that it has been a natural meeting point and ‘crossroads’ in central China; a transportation hub and an economic, commercial, cultural and political centre. In 1949, Wuhan City was established by the merging of Hanyang, Hankou and Wuchan urban settlements. Positioned on the north-east bank, where the rivers meet, Hankou (or Hankow, as the Chinese name has previously been romanised) remains a key port.

Two surviving buildings in Hankou, constructed in the first quarter of the 20th century, are linked to my family history and heritage. They have been connected to two businesses with which my paternal grandfather, Walter Hughes Corsane, was associated: the Hankow Ice Works and the Aerated Water Company. The first building, erected in 1918, was identified by Chinese researchers and the second, built in 1921, was identified by me (see below). Both were located in the French Concession, one of the five foreign concessions in Hankow. For various reasons, these buildings and their associated histories have undergone a certain amount of literal and figurative ‘displacement’ from the family heritage. The physical displacement of this family heritage took place following a period of human-made conflict, devastation, suffering and trauma that started in July 1937, with the invasion and subsequent occupation of China by Japan in the Second Sino-Japanese War. This human-made turmoil increased as this conflict became part of World War II and grew further due to internal civil strife and war within China itself, which continued until 1949.

This chapter outlines a personal ‘journey’ of recovering ‘displaced’ heritage. It covers some of the challenges associated with conducting family history research in today’s world.

Introduction

Histories of disaster, trauma and loss are an integral part of examining Germany’s 20th century heritage. In this chapter three heritage sites which represent these aspects of displacement are introduced: firstly, the Frauenkirche in Dresden as a place embodying human-made disaster; secondly, the Zeithain Grove of Honour as a site of trauma; and finally, the Betonzeitschiene – Plattenbau Micromuseum as a space of loss. The Dresden Frauenkirche is perhaps Saxony’s most well-known general tourist attraction, celebrating the city’s Baroque architectural history, but also a place of memory following the disaster of the Allied firebombing of Dresden during World War II. This occurred on 13 and 14 February 1945, reducing the church to heaps of rubble. It was rebuilt during 1992–2005 following reunification, having been left as a ruin during the German Democratic Republic (GDR) period. The Zeithain Grove of Honour and Micromuseum are a commemoration and interpretation of the trauma of a former World War II prisoner of war (POW) camp housing Allied soldiers. The Betonzeitschiene – Plattenbau Micromuseum consisted of a spatial, architectural installation commemorating the history of the Plattenbau (prefabricated concrete panel apartment blocks) as an architectural form and local industry.

This chapter considers what constitutes heritage against notions of displacement and (re) placement in relation to: disaster and recovery; destruction and regeneration; trauma and reconciliation; loss and renewal; remembering and forgetting; place and time; past, present and future. Underlying these notions are the shifting perceptions of what is, or is not, ‘worthy’ of preservation or memorialisation at any one moment in time; perceptions which are dependent on numerous political and public factors, themselves always in a state of flux. These issues are heightened in locations such as eastern Germany, which has undergone major political and social upheaval from the end of World War II, through the period of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) 1949–1990, reunification with the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), and right up to today. This chapter examines the changing nature of heritage memorialisation over time, using examples from the current eastern German state of Saxony. These examples of heritage memorialisation range from the ‘macro’ (nationally and internationally recognised symbolic heritage) to the ‘micro’ (niche interest and/or ‘unpopular’ heritage).

The Frauenkirche is an example of macro-level heritage, widely recognised for both its architectural significance and as a post-reunification identity marker for Germany.

Disasters, whether they are natural or caused by people, change the environment and ‘displace’ heritage resources. They can be dramatic natural impacts such as tsunami and volcanic eruptions, or terrible events unleashed by humankind, including holocaust and genocide. Sometimes disasters are more insidious, such as the logging of rainforests for short-term gain, or elevated sea temperatures, possibly linked to global climate change, that result in thermal stress and bleach coral ecosystems; these may be slower events but their impact is still hugely significant. Disasters can be high-impact events or occur on a small, localised scale. Whether natural or human-made, rapid or slow, great or small, the impact is effectively the same; nature, people and cultural heritage are displaced or lost.

What constitutes ‘disaster’? At first this might seem a fairly straightforward question, but ‘disaster’ eludes simple definition, or as Philip Buckle (2007) puts it, defining disaster is never easy and rarely definitive. Indeed, the word disaster is so frequently used in everyday dialogue, from misplaced house keys to major events such as earthquakes and hurricanes, as to be almost meaningless (Convery et al 2008). This ubiquity is problematic, and as López-Ibor (2005) notes, in academic disciplines it is almost impossible to find an acceptable definition of a disaster. The term originates from the unfavourable aspect of a star, from the French désastre or Italian disastro, and suggests that when the stars are poorly aligned, unfortunate things are likely to happen; the implication is that disastrous events are outside human control. Indeed, disasters may still be viewed as ‘events from the physical environment... caused by forces which are unfamiliar’ (LópezIbor 2005, 2) and frequently unforeseen.

Nesmith (2006, 59) writes that the word disaster has many synonyms that add conceptual significance to the term in communicating misery, death, destruction, helplessness, sudden reversal of what is expected and unhappy resolutions to distressing events. She provides a set of defi ning characteristics:

• • Event that disrupts the health of and occurs to a collective unit of a society or community

• • The event overwhelms available resources and requires outside assistance for management and mitigation

• • Represents tremendous relative human losses

• • Negative impact event of natural, financial, technologic, or human origin, for example, armed conflict

• • Represents a breakdown in the relationship between humans and the environment