Guoyu CHENG, School of Geography, Centre for Asian Geography Studies, South China Normal University, China
Ning AN, School of Geography, Centre for Asian Geography Studies, South China Normal University, China
To investigate the construction of emotional atmosphere of Paracel Islands as a tourist destination in the context of patriotic tourism, and how collective memory, patriotic emotion and identity are awakened in the process of tourist encounter. This paper conducts a discourse analysis of Chinese tourist writings about Paracel Islands on the most popular Chinese online tourist forum, Mafengwo (hornet’s nest), combined with participatory observation and interviews with tourists, from the perspective of tourism political geography and emotion theory. The study found that the creation of patriotic emotional atmosphere in Paracel Islands is the result of multi-body interaction between the country, enterprises, residents, and tourists, and is also an important way to safeguard China's effective sovereignty and territorial facts in the South China Sea. There are three major tourism stages in which the atmosphere of patriotism is shaped: the control of tourism destination's mobility, tourists' experience and perception, and the awakening of national identity. Among them, the institutional practice of the national subject, the ritual and symbol of tourism activities, the special location and landscape of tourist destinations, and the individual experience and local interaction of tourists are the important emotional driving forces to promote the sustainable production of sovereign borders.
Mots clés :
A105215YL