The research tries to provide insights from the perspective of rural built heritage preservation within the debates of the authorized heritage discourse. Moreover, after the case study investigations and review of existing literatures on public governance and policy, Elster's rational choice model seemed to provide an integrated basis for the traditional interpretation of actions in the social sciences—causal explanation and intentional explanation—which can enable a better understanding of rural built-heritage preservation and development in China. Reflections from the perspective of the public governance have been made to further define the policy implications for the case study villages.