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URI [dataset] University of Southampton Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences Geography and Environmental Science Urban–rural mobility, landscape, and displacement: Rural Tourism Makers in China by Peipei Chen Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2021 University of Southampton Abstract Faculty of Environmental and Life Sciences Geography and Environmental Science Doctor of Philosophy Urban–rural mobility, landscape, and displacement: Rural Tourism Makers in China by Peipei Chen The Rural Tourism Makers (RTMs) policy initiated by the National Tourism Administration in China aimed to create 100 RTMs’ Model Bases and engage 10,000 RTMs in rural tourism development between 2015 and 2017. The arrival of RTMs to the villages and their engagement in rural tourism raise some fundamental questions about urban–rural population movement, the changing rural landscape in China, and the relationships between newcomers and local residents. Drawing on eight months of fieldwork in four RTMs’ Model Bases in Zhejiang province and Sichuan province in China, including participant observation and 131 interviews with government officials, RTMs, and local residents, this research aims to answer three research questions. Who are the RTMs and why are they moving to the rural areas? How do RTMs produce a new rural landscape and how is their middle-class identity performed in this process? And what are the relationships between newly incoming RTMs and local residents? Addressing current debates in rural studies and related fields, three main arguments are made. First, RTMs are both middle-class consumers and creative- class producers, taking us beyond the consumer-producer binary found in much existing rural tourism research. Second, RTMs provide a new example of ongoing and flexible urban–rural mobility, taking us beyond the unidirectional, long-distance, and permanent movements of people found in much existing urban–rural migration research. Third, the relationship between newcomers and local residents is complex and shaped by the specific Chinese context, taking us beyond the form of displacement found in much existing rural gentrification research. In sum, this research contributes to understandings of the emerging new middle class and the emerging new rural landscape in China and beyond. Table of Contents Table of Contents Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... i Table of Tables ............................................................................................................. v Table of Figures ........................................................................................................... vii Research Thesis: Declaration of Authorship ..................................................................ix Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................xi Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 1.1 Rural Tourism Makers ................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Why study Rural Tourism Makers? ............................................................................ 3 1.2.1 Rural tourism development in China and the emerging RTMs .......................... 3 1.2.2 Rural in-migration, production-consumption motivation, and complex local- newcomer relations ........................................................................................... 4 1.3 Aims, objectives, and research questions .................................................................. 6 1.4 Main contributions ..................................................................................................... 8 1.5 Structure of the thesis .............................................................................................. 10 Chapter 2 Literature Review ..................................................................................... 13 2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 13 2.2 Rural tourism ............................................................................................................ 15 2.2.1 Social construction of rurality and rural landscape ......................................... 15 2.2.2 Rural tourism in China ...................................................................................... 18 2.3 Creative class ............................................................................................................ 24 2.4 Urban–rural mobility ................................................................................................ 27 2.4.1 Urban–rural mobility .......................................................................................... 27 2.4.2 The increasing urban–rural mobility in China .................................................... 29 2.5 Rural gentrification ................................................................................................... 31 2.5.1 Middle-class gentrifiers .................................................................................... 33 2.5.2 Consumption and production explanations of rural gentrification ................. 35 2.5.3 The production of a gentrified landscape ........................................................ 37 2.5.4 Effect of gentrification ..................................................................................... 40 i Table of Contents 2.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 42 Chapter 3 Methodology ............................................................................................ 47 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 47 3.2 Qualitative approach ............................................................................................... 47 3.3 Ethnography ............................................................................................................. 48 3.4 One case, two provinces, four field sites ................................................................. 50 3.4.1 Moganshan International Rural Tourism (Yangjiale) Clusters ......................... 52 3.4.2 Twenty-Nine-Room House RTMs’ Model Base ................................................ 54 3.4.3 Mingyue Village International Pottery Art RTMs’ Model Base ........................ 55 3.4.4 Daoming Bamboo Art Village RTMs’ Model Base ............................................ 57 3.5 Data collection ......................................................................................................... 59 3.5.1 Interviews......................................................................................................... 60 3.5.2 Participant observation.................................................................................... 71 3.5.3 Online observation and policy documents ...................................................... 73 3.6 Positionality and reflexivity...................................................................................... 74 3.7 Ethical dilemmas ...................................................................................................... 76 3.8 Data analysis ............................................................................................................ 78 3.9 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 80 Chapter 4 Middle-class consumers and creative-class producers: RTMs and their urban–rural mobility ................................................................................. 83 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 83 4.2 Elites’ relocation to the rural in Chinese history ..................................................... 86 4.3 Beyond production/consumption ........................................................................... 89 4.3.1 Middle-class consumers................................................................................... 89 4.3.2 Creative-class producers .................................................................................. 93 4.4 Beyond urban/rural ................................................................................................