Ethnic tourism, identity, and community empowerment: perspective of “Chaoxianzu” in Yanbian, China

Park, Jeongeun

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/115742 Copy

Description

Title

Ethnic tourism, identity, and community empowerment: perspective of “Chaoxianzu” in Yanbian, China

Author(s)

Park, Jeongeun

Issue Date

2022-04-22

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Santos, Carla

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Santos, Carla

Committee Member(s)

• Stodolska, Monika
• Soulard, Joelle
• Ostler, Teresa

Department of Study

Recreation, Sport and Tourism

Discipline

Recreation, Sport, and Tourism

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Ethnic tourism
• Ethnic identity
• Empowerment
• Community attitude

Abstract

To understand the community perspective in the context of tourism development, this dissertation focused on exploring ways that ethnic agents are empowered through tourism development. Also, this dissertation investigated how ethnic communities react to tourism structure and practices focusing on ethnic identity formation and negotiation process. Lastly, based on the two previous inquiries, this study examined factors that influence community members’ attitudes toward ethnic tourism development. The dissertation undertook an ethnographic reading of an ethnic community, "Chaoxianzu," and its autonomous prefecture "Yanbian" in North-eastern China. Adopting a critical ethnography approach, three extensive field visits were conducted. The collected and analyzed data from the fieldworks included semi-structured in-depth interviews, participant and non-participant observations, and a thick description of the site using field notes. Findings suggested that Chaoxianzu community members were economically, socially, culturally, and psychologically both empowered and disempowered, but environmentally and politically disempowered through tourism development. Also, Chaoxianzu community members had constantly negotiated the meanings of their identity by embracing the narratives offered by red tourism or by questioning the representation of Yanbian as a Seoul-like city. Moreover, community members negotiated the meaning assigned to their group membership by internalizing tourist perspectives and perceiving the benefits of traveling to their community. Lastly, community members had formed their attitude towards tourism development based on their perceived empowerment, social identity and perceived authenticity. Further explanation of the findings as well as theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and recommendations for further research are discussed.

Graduation Semester

2022-05

Type of Resource

Thesis

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Jeongeun Park

Owning Collections