Tradition to Transformation: the Cultural Alchemy of Ethnic Tourism in UNESCO’S Heritage Mountain — Jingmai
The intangible cultural heritor of Jingmai Tea, Sanwen, said that the tea forest of Jingmai was a treasure their ancestors had left for them.
Our ancestors said, gold and silver treasures will one day be exhausted, livestock and food will one day deplete, but the tea forest is timeless, inexhaustible, and unbounded. It is a treasure we can always depend on.
In recent years, through the combined effort of various factors, ethnic tourism has gained considerable public attention. Experiencing local culture has become an important part of tourism and travelers are paying increasing attention to the cultural authenticity instead of the fascination of their experiences. Particularly in China, people have placed increased emphasis on the idea of “Shanshui”. Tourists started populating areas that deliver a certain symbolic cultural meaning while being underdeveloped in terms of its infrastructure and economy. This trend is statistically evident, but it has also leaved traces of its presence in the altering appearance and economy of tourist destinations. The public have gained increased interest of visiting heritage sites in Yunnan, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia, in attempt to gain better understanding of China’s minority cultures. The Blang people in Jingmai (a mountain where 14 ethnic villages are located on) have been able to triple their income after the heritage village Wengji developed its tourism industry. Many of these developments and changes were government driven. The government applied for Jingmai to become a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage site and this label remarkably bolstered the popularity and publicity of the region. There is now a hotel, founded by a French business man, with prices averaging around 3000-4000 RMB per night. Language policies were also enacted in Xinjiang to adapt the region for more tourist development, and until this day much controversy sustains over these changes. Regulations demanded that road signs are no longer in the Uyghur language and instead in mandarin, names of places were mandatorily changed so that they were more understandable in mandarin. The speaking of Uyghur in public (when there is a conversation between more than two people happening) is also discouraged. Academic discourse, western or oriental, has been mostly opposed to the actions of the Chinese government, expectedly. The main argument for the continuation of tourismification efforts is economic, and there has been numerous pieces of statistical evidence that suggest the income of the ethnic minorities who live in tourismified sites have increased dramatically (for some their income doubled and for others it even tripled). The economic barriers posed against ethnic minorities make development a difficult agenda in autonomous regions. Lack of mandarin capacities, infrastructure, and industrialization has led to autonomous regions finding economic development a difficult and enduring task. These issues, are, however, partially a result of ethnic tourism and education policies in recent years. The troubles for ethnic minorities, therefore, seem much like a loop, where problems are responsible for each other, and to trace back the source of all problems is an almost unachievable task.
Wengjing village from the hill top
My opinions a year ago mostly aligned with the discourse I had consumed: touristification is bad in nature, ethnic minorities are further oppressed by ethnic tourism, and the government is manipulating minority culture. The intention of my first trip to Yunnan was therefore, not to explore my doubts, but to find evidence in support of this existing argument of mine. My first visit to Wengding, the famous “last primitive village” of China, was largely successful in evidencing my opinion. The chief of the tribe is paid to wear traditional costume, sit on a stool in a designated spot, and take photos with tourists for 8 hours a day. Local peoples working on the site were women, children, and old people, and all of them wore traditional costumes. Most young men had abandoned the traditional clothing, and are accustomed to putting on modernistic work uniforms. The people there barely had any understanding of the concept of “culture”. Culture to them was so distant that they did not even know what culture meant specifically. One of the Wa people’s sacrificial rituals, featuring the killing of a chicken and village-wide celebrations carrying its blood, had become a performance and was scheduled to happen on certain days. My visit to Wengding proved my hypothesis correct, but the visit was in general a disappointing one. Ethnic tourism is the idea of tourism with an emphasis on local culture and humanities, yet, the ethnic tourism that is actually experienced seems much more like a standardized set of procedures where every tourist would wind up with the same experience. No personal connection can be felt, as culture in this type of tourism was more of a duplicable commodity rather than a lively element of a functioning society.
The same has been done to multiple regions, mostly inland autonomous regions where ethnic minorities are scattered and share little sense of community. These touristification attempts are usually successful as seen in Yunnan, Xishuangbanna, and also the Miao villages. Touristification is not an element that appears on its own, instead, it usually comes in packets. Efforts to touristify and popularize regions often result in fundamental changes in the local economic structure. For instance, in Miao villages, there used to be a strong emphasis on communal interest. Competition between villagers were rare and business interests of families were usually located in different areas. As tourism to these villages became popular, the villagers competed against each other, many strategies, both right and wrong, were used. Tourists’ desire to experience local culture has mainly manifested through their desires for cultural displays. They want to walk into a village and see women in local costumes dancing, perhaps washing dishes by the rivers, living in wooden houses located on rocky hills, and probably dancing around while feeding domestic animals that they live together with. But reality would disappoint them. The stilt houses (Ganlan or bamboo buildings) have long been abandoned and people have moved into concrete or brick houses where they separate their animals from their places of living. The stilt houses have undergone two modifications, and the houses most ethnic minorities live in now are much like any other house in a small town or city. Digitalization has also hit these autonomous regions, even the most rural parts, they are connected to the rest of the world through the internet. These observations allowed me to conclude that touristification is a harmful thing, it is a means of oppression. All these thoughts sustained until I arrived at Jingmai mountain.
The blue sign indicates the direction to a family that sells colored sago cake; the second sign reads “Vietnamese spring rolls”; the third sign reads “Papaya coconut milk jelly”; all these deserts are not native to this region, however, they are frequently seen on Chinese social media platforms.
In September of 2023, Jingmai mountain was officially recognized as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage site, for its tea culture. Due to UNESCO’s standards for ICH sites, strict regulations limit the transportation of concrete and cement up the mountain. The locals are banned from building new floors for existing buildings, and for any new building they wanted to build or any expansions they wanted to make, the construction had to occur under strict supervision and the structures must be of wood. The mountain was much like an Arcadia. Wengji village, one of the 14 villages on Jingmai mountain, is overlooked by an ancient tree, around 500 years old. The endless stone-paved paths guides visitors into channels overshadowed by towering trees, the air is filled with an earthy scent of damp soil and wet leaves, the scattered branches filtered sunlight into dappled patterns on the rocky path. Blang people living on the mountains had clear consciousness about both the cultural and economic value of their traditions, they were economically educated and understood that any long term economic success can only result from sustainable and controlled exploitation of their cultural and local resources. There are no staged cultural displays, the only activities available to visitors were to walk into a residential house and chat with the owner while being offered tea. The village is relaxed, natural, and tranquil, it is everything you can expect from a rural village, it satisfies all ideals pursued by the Shanshui movement. There are no staged cultural displays, the village has undergone limited changes despite its attempts to accommodate visitors. Successful preservation of the region is largely a result of the combined efforts of UNESCO requirements and the local peoples’ awareness that long term economic success in ethnic tourism can only happen through sustainable exploitation. Compared to other villages such as Wengding and Manzhang (a Dai village which has been severely commoditized), Wengji has managed to retain appreciable more dignity and perform better protection of its humanitarian ecosystem. Such striking differences suggest that ethnic tourism by itself does not guarantee culture deterioration. Instead, the impact of ethnic tourism is contingent on what the people intend to use ethnic tourism for.
Taking into account broader concerns such as the national economy, regional infrastructure development, and educational inequalities, tourism is assumably the most practical way that autonomous regions can develop their economy. Lack of mandarin language capacity and geographical isolation means it is disproportionately harder for ethnic minorities to realize economic success in the employment market. Most end up in agricultural positions, and earn a lower income than their Han counterparts. The advantage of these regions precisely lies in its humanitarian landscape, thus, tourism is an adaptable model for these regions. Dali (Bai autonomous region), for instance, is in essence a tourist city, where the country’s economy is predominantly reliant on the tourism industry. Sinicization was never a result of touristification alone, rather, the homogenization of culture results from the existing inequalities in language, education, and economy in the status quo.
Entrance to the ancient temple of Wengji village
The will of a greater actor demands that sinicization occurs on a national level; the existent inequalities are components of a rigid power structure where different levels of literacy have resulted in unequal capabilities of different groups in pursuing their interests. When tourism occurs, third party companies facilitate it. When decisions are made, they are top-down. When profit is earned, distribution of profit favors the group in power. In the prolonged processes of touristification, resource exploitation, and marketing, the local population have lost their voices in decision-making. As the local population, who are the live embodiment of their culture, are marginalized within their own communities, we see the lack of authenticity in the cultural displays. The fear for cultural disunity and the country’s current focus on national development are the factors at the core of these problems. To be fair, there are also reasons that can be traced back to the local communities. In other words, what is the problem in the idea of ethnic tourism itself?
All ethnic groups in the People's Republic of China are equal. The state protects the lawful rights and interests of the minority nationalities and upholds and develops the relationship of equality, unity and mutual assistance among all of China's nationalities. Discrimination against and oppression of any nationality are prohibited (Xi, 2019)
In some regions, there are no cultural displays forced onto the minorities, yet, they have “voluntarily” created cultural displays. These unauthentic cultural displays are the ideas of the local population, they have “voluntarily” marketed an inaccurate image of their cultural identity. Typically, the reason for the creation of cultural displays is to attract tourists or satisfy tourist imaginations. In most cases, these cultural displays show what tourists already believe in, or what the minorities perceive majority understanding of their culture looks like. That is to say, cultural displays play into existing stereotypes instead of trying to establish accurate cultural narratives. Shaped by documentaries, news, mass media, public perception of ethnic minorities is composed by two fundamental concepts: exoticness and primitiveness. When minority women appear in media, they usually appear in traditional costumes, doing domestic work such as washing clothes in a stream, living in a rural setting. Ethnic minorities seem like people who are backward, uneducated, simplistic, and premodern. The entire system of ethnic tourism has thus become a cycle in which majority discourse is perpetuated by both majority and minorities. There is little will to stop the cycle, and the ambiguous boundaries of cultural make it difficult to define what is authentic and what is not, or should people intervene or not. Culture is a symbol, a civilization, but also a tool. Intervention is barely justified, and no matter how intervention occurs, it seems that in one way or another it would become a form of forceful imposition of a more powerful group whose hubris has made believe that they are superior.
Image of Mongolian women, from XINHUA net
That is to say, cultural displays play into existing stereotypes instead of trying to establish accurate cultural narratives. Shaped by documentaries, news, and mass media, public perception of ethnic minorities is composed of two fundamental concepts: exoticness and primitiveness. When a minority women appears on TV, they usually appear in traditional costumes, are seen doing domestic work (washing clothes in a stream), living in a rural setting. The archetypal ethnic minority is an individual who is backward, uneducated, simplistic, and premodern. The most common adjectives people who have been to Yunnan use to describe the local person are “simple and pure”. The entire system of ethnic tourism has thus become a cycle in which majority discourse is perpetuated by both majority and minority. There is little incentive to stop the cycle, and the ambiguous boundaries of culture make it difficult to define what is authentic and what is not of a culture; the lack of justification but desire to intervene also pose the question: whether or not we should intervene in the progression of a other culture.
Culture is a symbol, the center of a civilization, or perhaps just a tool that mechanizes a society. Intervention is at best vaguely justifiable, and no matter how and why intervention happens, it seems that in one way or another such intervention would turn out as the forceful imposition of a more powerful group’s ideology. Culture is only authentic and true when it is autonomous. All cultures are equal, and all peoples deserve the right to define their own culture according to their will.
