Opening China to the Tourist Gaze: Representations of Chinese People and Languages in Newspaper Travel Writing since the 1980s Xiaoxiao Chen BA (English Language Teaching) MA (English Language and Literature) Department of Linguistics Macquarie University Sydney, Australia This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April, 2013 Table of Contents Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................i List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ............................................................................................................................xi Abstract .................................................................................................................................. xiii Statement of Candidate ............................................................................................................ xv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... xvii Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research problem ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Tourism development in China since 1978 ................................................................. 3 1.3 Seeing China ............................................................................................................... 6 1.3.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 6 1.3.2 ‘Outsiders’ constructing China ............................................................................ 7 1.3.2.1 Western travel writing about China from the 13th century to the early 18th century ................................................................................................................... 7 1.3.2.2 Western travel writing about China from the late 18th century to the 19th century ................................................................................................................... 9 1.3.2.3 Western travel writing about China in the 1st half of the 20th century ..... 12 1.3.2.4 Western travel writing about China after 1949 .......................................... 13 1.3.2.5 Summary..................................................................................................... 15 1.3.3 ‘Insiders’ constructing China ............................................................................. 15 1.3.3.1 Traditional Chinese culture ........................................................................ 17 1.3.3.2 Contemporary Chinese culture ................................................................... 18 1.3.4 Summary ............................................................................................................ 21 1.4 Overview of the thesis ............................................................................................... 21 Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework and Literature Review ................................................. 25 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 25 i 2.2 CMDA ....................................................................................................................... 25 2.2.1 Rationale for employing CMDA ....................................................................... 25 2.2.2 Overview of CDA and relevant key themes ...................................................... 27 2.2.2.1 Discourse, text, and context........................................................................ 28 2.2.2.2 Critique in CDA ......................................................................................... 29 2.2.2.3 Power and ideology .................................................................................... 30 2.2.2.4 Summary .................................................................................................... 31 2.2.3 Implementation of CMDA ................................................................................. 32 2.2.3.1 Application of CMDA to tourism representations of people ..................... 32 2.2.3.2 Socio-semiotic model of visual communication ........................................ 34 2.2.3.3 Integration of language ideology into CMDA ........................................... 39 2.2.4 Summary ............................................................................................................ 40 2.3 Orientalist representation of the Other ...................................................................... 41 2.3.1 Orientalism: the key ideas ................................................................................. 41 2.3.2 Critiques of Orientalism in tourism discourses ................................................. 44 2.3.3 Critiques of Orientalism in tourism discourses about China and Asia .............. 47 2.4 Critical studies of tourism representations in media discourses ............................... 49 2.4.1 Overview of critical studies of tourism representations in media discourses .... 50 2.4.2 Tourism representations of native people .......................................................... 53 2.4.3 Tourism representations of languages in destinations ....................................... 55 2.5 Conclusion and research questions ........................................................................... 57 Chapter 3: Methodology ...................................................................................................... 59 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 59 3.2 Data collection and corpus design ............................................................................ 59 3.3 Procedures of data analysis ....................................................................................... 67 3.4 Limitations ................................................................................................................ 68 3.5 Summary ................................................................................................................... 70 ii Chapter 4: Chinese People as Destination Scenery ............................................................. 71 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 71 4.2 Chinese people as symbols of timelessness .............................................................. 71 4.2.1 Chinese people undisturbed by modernity......................................................... 71 4.2.2 Chinese people adhering to traditions ................................................................ 78 4.2.3 Timelessness as a formal element ...................................................................... 82 4.2.4 Summary ............................................................................................................ 84 4.3 Chinese people as circumstances of destinations ...................................................... 85 4.3.1 Chinese people as destination decorations......................................................... 85 4.3.2 Chinese people as circumstances of means ....................................................... 92 4.3.3 Summary ............................................................................................................ 96 4.4 Chinese people as objects.......................................................................................... 96 4.5 Differential Constructions of Chinese people in the NYT and CD ......................... 101 4.5.1 Constructions of Chinese people as destination scenery in the NYT ............... 101 4.5.1.1 The mundane transformed into the ‘exotic’ ............................................. 101 4.5.1.2 Groups of undistinguished Others ............................................................ 105 4.5.1.3 Differentiated communities ...................................................................... 107 4.5.1.4 Summary................................................................................................... 111 4.5.2 Constructions of Chinese people as destination scenery in CD ....................... 111 4.5.2.1 Performers of cultural heritage ................................................................. 111 4.5.2.2 Community representatives ...................................................................... 117 4.5.2.3 Displayers of ethnic costume .................................................................... 123 4.5.2.4 Summary................................................................................................... 125 4.6 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 126 Chapter 5: Chinese People in Interaction .......................................................................... 129 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 129 5.2 Chinese people as helpers ......................................................................................