Memory, homecoming and the politics of diaspora tourism in China

Abstract

Diaspora tourism has become a significant form of transnational mobility that underlies many issues in the field of tourism and migration studies. Despite a considerable body of research that focuses on tourism motivations of home return and its social functions in collective identities and meaning-making, the political roles of diaspora tourism in shaping ethnic bonds and transnational networks need to be further acknowledged. Since 2014, a group of Muslims from Kazakhstan have travelled to China to celebrate their return after over 140 years of displacement from their homeland. Interviews with local officials and residents in Xi’an illustrate the political factors of host governments and local Muslim communities in organising the formal group tourism events. Unlike informal and personal travel, such officially organised diaspora tourism does not serve as a simple act of homecoming. The host governments have used it as a political tool to shape transnational networks and domestic ethnic governance under the discourse of ‘Belt and Road’ initiative. To fulfil this political agenda, the official narrative of diaspora tourism involves a process of remembering and forgetting, and the creation of itineraries that authenticates the imagined ancestral homeland while effacing the unsettled past. The itinerary of tourism events and related cultural practices focuses on a shared ethno-religious identity and common interests of cultural and business exchange between the selected diaspora representatives and host communities. However, due to its political nature, the sustainability of diaspora tourism does not only relate to funding and resource management. Such organised diaspora tourism is also closely associated with the shifting ethnic and migration policies of the host nation-state.

摘要

离散旅游是一种重要的跨国流动形式, 凸显了旅游和移民研究领域的诸多问题。目前相关研究多聚焦于离散旅游的动机及其在集体认同和意义构建中的社会功能, 但对其在塑造民族纽带和跨国关系网方面所扮演的政治角色少有涉及, 需进一步阐释。2014年以来, 一群生活在哈萨克斯坦的穆斯林前往中国西安庆祝他们离开故土140多年后的回归。通过对西安当地官员和居民的访谈, 本研究阐明了东道国政府和当地回民社区在组织正式的离散旅游活动中的政治因素。与非正式或私人的旅行不同, 官方组织的离散旅游并不只是一种简单的返乡行为。东道国政府将它作为一种政治工具, 在“一带一路”倡议的语境下塑造跨国关系网, 促进国内少数民族治理。为实现这一政治议题, 离散旅游的官方叙述中运用了记忆和遗忘的技术, 将想象中的故土家园真实化, 并抹掉那些不确定的过去。旅游活动和相关文化实践的日程安排强调了东道主和客人之间共享的民族-宗教身份, 以及文化和商业交流所带来的共同利益。然而, 由于其政治属性, 有组织的离散旅游的可持续性不仅取决于资金及资源管理, 也与东道国不断变化的民族和移民政策密切相关。

Keywords:

• Diaspora tourism
• memory
• ethnicity
• cultural heritage
• Belt and Road
• China
• transnational mobility
• geopolitics

关键词:

• 离散旅游
• 记忆
• 民族性
• 文化遗产
• 一带一路
• 中国
• 跨国流动
• 地缘政治

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Jay Winter, Jon Unger, Jane Golley and the reviewers for their useful comments. I would also like to thank Yang Yang, Junmin Liu and Patrick Bailey for their cheerful assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interests was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Australian Academy of the Humanities Travel Fellowship

Notes on contributors

Yujie Zhu

Yujie Zhu is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies, Australian National University, Australia.