How a Railway
Became One Station

The research paper

How a Railway Became One Station

Heritage, Power, and Uneven Memory along the Yunnan–Vietnam Line

The Yunnan–Vietnam Railway is a French-built metre-gauge railway connecting the Vietnamese port of Haiphong with Kunming in southwest China. It was an important route for exporting local natural resources. Today, Bisezhai Station, commonly known as the “Eastern Little Paris” or the “No. 1 Station on the Yunnan–Vietnam Railway,” has become a well-known and recognizable Chinese landmark, especially after appearing in the 2017 blockbuster Youth. During my fieldwork in Honghe Prefecture, however, a private railway curator in Kaiyuan told me that much of Bisezhai’s fame came from invented stories and rumors and that Kaiyuan had been the actual center of the railway. Inspired by his challenge to common perceptions, I examined museum exhibitions, travel writing, oral histories, official reports, and disputed local memories. Drawing on Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Laurajane Smith, and Brian Larkin, I argue that Bisezhai became more famous and representative because its history could be concentrated in a bounded, photogenic site, while Kaiyuan’s historical importance and influence were dispersed across the city. The process of creating heritage therefore reorganized local geography by making certain types of history more visible than others.