Crafting a place-based souvenir for sustaining cultural heritage

This study aims to investigate the souvenir-person-place bonding for sustaining cultural heritage. Previous studies acknowledge souvenirs could represent a place; however, how people perceive souvenirs as representative of the place still needs to be studied. This study comprehends the traditional craft by identifying the dimensions of place-based craft souvenirs and exploring the connections between souvenirs, craft, and place. A qualitative approach was employed. In-depth interviews, participant and non-participant observations were conducted in Jinan, China, a long-history city with many traditional crafts. Thirty documents were imported into ATLAS.ti software for analysis. The ‘place-based craft souvenir’, ‘evaluation of souvenir’, ‘place meaning’, and ‘satisfaction’ emerged as the four main themes of ‘souvenir-person-place bonding’. These ‘souvenir-people-place’ bonding motivate individuals’ understanding of traditional craft and place, contributing to the sustainability of the traditional craft.