1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996433049703316

Autore

Zhu Yujie

Titolo

Heritage and Romantic Consumption in China / Yujie Zhu

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Amsterdam : , : Amsterdam University Press, , [2018]

©2018

ISBN

90-485-3682-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (169 pages)

Collana

Asian Heritages ; 4

Disciplina

338.4/79151

Soggetti

Soziokultureller Wandel

Tourismus

Idealisierung

Brauchtum

Kulturerbe

Nationale Minderheit

Tradition (Philosophy)

Heritage tourism

Heritage tourism - China

Electronic books.

China

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-159) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Prologue: Somewhere in Time -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Stage -- 3. Scripts -- 4. Local Actors -- 5. Guests -- 6. After the Show -- 7. Conclusion -- Epilogue: The Show Must Go On -- Acknowledgments -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The drums beat, an old man in a grand robe mutters incantations and three brides on horseback led by their grooms on foot proceed to the Naxi Wedding Courtyard, accompanied, watched and photographed the whole way by tourists, who have bought tickets for the privilege. The traditional wedding ceremonies are performed for the ethnic tourism industry in Lijiang, a World Heritage town in southwest China. This book examines how heritage interacts with social-cultural changes and



how individuals perform and negotiate their identities through daily practices that include tourism, on the one hand, and the performance of ethnicity on the other. The wedding performances in Lijiang not only serve as a heritage 'product' but show how the heritage and tourism industry helps to shape people's values, dreams and expectations. This book also explores the rise of 'romantic consumerism' in contemporary China. Chinese dissatisfaction with the urban mundane leads to romanticized interests in practices and people deemed to be natural, ethnic, spiritual and aesthetic, and a search for tradition and authenticity. But what, exactly, are tradition and authenticity, and what happens to them when they are turned into performance?