Exploration on the Social Value of Mount Taishan World Heritage Site from the Perspective of Public Discourse

In order to ensure the conservation and sustainable development of world heritage, it is necessary to, on the one hand, identify heritage values from the expert perspective and formulate appropriate conservation and development strategies based on these values and, on the other hand, explore how the individual and collective memories construct the contemporary social values of heritage from the public perspective. Taking Mount Taishan as an example, this research adopts the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis and, through semi-structured interviews, analyzes how people’s memories, experiences and emotions are expressed in the process of visiting Mount Taishan to construct the social values of Mount Taishan. Research results show that: firstly, people pay attention to the sense of history and cultural pride brought by Mount Taishan, and this attention is more of emotional resonance; secondly, people’s interpretation of heritage value changes with the times and incorporates the experience of modern life into the interpretation of ancient heritage value, making the connotation of heritage enriched with the development of the times. The research concludes that although people lack the expertise in world heritage nomination and management and it is difficult for them to participate in the nomination and management of world heritage directly. It is possible for researchers to record people’s understanding and emotional expression of heritage values through semi-structured interviews, informal discussions, participant observation, questionnaires, and quantitative collection of big data, which can help recognize the difference between public discourse and expert discourse, and explore more democratic and more localized social values of heritage sites.