The planning of the Beijing Legation Quarter and the multiple identities of post-colonial heritage (1950s–2010s).

The planning controlling post-colonial heritage discourse has long been influenced by changing political and economic narratives. This paper documents diversified uses and narratives of colonial heritage in twelve plans of the Beijing Legation Quarter, China to investigate the influence of multiple identities in Beijing's development. By analysing the particular spatio-temporal dynamics in eleven former legation compounds, it presents three planning strategies used in colonial heritage site regeneration (diminishment, transformation, and enforcement) and argues that the ambivalent or paradoxical discourses of colonial heritage in the Beijing Legation Quarter result from Beijing's multiple cultural identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]