Abstract
This chapter aims to explore conceptually the commodification of ‘heritage’ in ‘ethnic’ tourist sites, focusing upon a so-called ‘traditional Kazakh village’ commercial tourist attraction near Tianchi Lake in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). Taking an interdisciplinary approach which combines ethnographic methods with theoretical analysis, we consider tourism's role in representing the cultural heritage of ethnic groups, but simultaneously consider how such representations also tie into wider social discourses in which ethnic groups are themselves represented as ‘heritage’ in being associated with ‘traditional cultures’ rather than modernity. Drawing on a ‘toolbox’ of theoretical concepts, we consider the village as a depiction of idealised/idyllised ethnicity, how it functions as a visual ‘sight/site’, and how Said's concept of ‘imagined geographies’ might also encompass ‘imagined ethnicities’. We finish with a discussion of this tourist site in relation to Michel Foucault's concept of ‘heterotopia’.
Keywords: ethnic heritage, ethnic tourism, Xinjiang, imagined geographies, heterotopia
Introduction
This chapter aims to explore conceptually the commodification of ‘heritage’ in ‘ethnic’ tourist sites, by focusing upon a so-called ‘traditional Kazakh village’ commercial tourist attraction near Tianchi Lake in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Taking an interdisciplinary approach which combines ethnographic methods with theoretical analysis, our aim here is to consider tourism's role in representing the cultural heritage of ethnic groups, but simultaneously to consider how such representations also tie into wider social discourses in which ethnic groups are themselves represented as ‘heritage’ in being associated with ‘traditional cultures’ rather than modernity. Beginning with a background discussion of the official social discourses which define ‘ethnicity’ within the Chinese context, as well as other scholars’ work around the intertwining of tourism and commodification, we go on to explore this particular site through a number of theoretical ‘lenses’. Drawing on a ‘toolbox’ of varied scholars’ work, we consider the village as a depiction of idealised/idyllised ethnicity, how it functions as a visual ‘sight/site’, and how Said's concept of ‘imagined geographies’ might also encompass ‘imagined ethnicities’. We finish with a discussion of this tourist site in relation to Michel Foucault's concept of ‘heterotopia’.
Tourism itself might be understood as a process of commodification, making people, places, ‘culture’, purchasable as ‘experiences to be had’ and also through being rendered into objects as souvenirs (including through the process of photography).