Han-Sun Yang
Celebration of Wealth and Emulation of Modernity: The Politics of Model Tourism
in China’s Richest Village (2006)
Dissertation Abstract:
Based on an ethnographic study of model tourism
in Huaxi, a village known as China’s richest village, I examine the transformation
of sociocultural order in post-socialist China, which is reflected in the discourse
of getting rich and the social practice of model emulation. Under Deng Xiaoping’s
theory, getting rich is glorious, and “those who got rich first” have
become exemplary models who are supposed to be emulated by poor others. Huaxi
is one of today’s exemplary model villages, and it attracts a large
number of tourists who seek to learn from its example.
To understand Huaxi
model tourism in terms of the transformation of social values, I analyze
Huaxi in its historical context. I examine models that appeared in different
historical periods, including Confucian models, Lei Feng, Dazhai, and Daqiuzhuang.
My research shows that as an embodiment of the hegemonic values of a society,
a model provides individuals with “models
for” behavior and imagination. It also demonstrates that old models
are denounced and mocked, while new models are honored, praised, envied,
and emulated. Huaxi emerged as a model not because it was declared so by
the state, but because its wealth began to attract widespread notice.
In Huaxi,
wealth is highly celebrated through various ways including public speeches,
staged performances, and the display of luxury houses and cars. Many tourists,
especially those from poor areas, visit Huaxi with the aspiration of obtaining
these symbols of modernity. However, my analysis of the political economy
of Huaxi tourism shows that regional disparity is both an outcome of and
a precondition for China’s prosperous coastal areas. Huaxi accumulated
its wealth by employing cheap labor from poor areas. These migrant workers,
who constitute the majority of the village population, are alienated from
the wealth of Huaxi. Interestingly, migrant workers and sincere tourists
share very similar socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. Thus, I argue
that today’s model tourism is driven by the unrealistic desires of
Chinese “have-nots” to emulate the symbols and trappings of China’s
rapidly burgeoning new capitalist class.