There is no real Chinese equivalent to the English term "heritage" or the French term "patrimoine." On the island of Kinmen, on the border between China and Taiwan, two particular terms are used: zuchan, designates material ancestral property; and wenzi, which qualifies the resources of the civilization. This paper will refer these two definitions and understandings in order to examine the notion of heritage on this "border island." Starting with an ethnographic inquiry of heritage practic...