Trading on Tradition.

“Culture” has become a resource to be excavated and marketed for profit throughout China in recent decades. This article investigates processes underlying the production of culture through the example of a Star Worshipping Festival staged by a tourism company in a Shanxi mountain village. Regional political economy, historical knowledge, and ritual practices underlie strategies of development that transformed the entire village into a new cultural product revolving around Ancient Fortress culture. Despite a shared vision of culture as a resource, conflicting spheres of interest emerged between villagers and the drivers of development. A tourism company selectively mobilized aspects of villagers’ cultural practices to create a historical narrative legitimizing Ancient Fortress culture. By promoting Star Worshipping as a cultural display, the tour company projected Ancient Fortress culture onto the entire village, thereby denying villagers the capacity to stake claims over the present profits and future governance of this new cultural product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]