Page 65 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol V

1842 berkshire encyclopedia of world history

Tours Guides in China

The Importance of Living—by Li Yutang, a pop-
ular author in pre–World War II China—aimed to
give American readers a glimpse at life in the East oped largely as a result of male prerogative and desire.
Asia in the 1930s. In the extract below, Li Yutang The tourism roles of women either have been described
explains the peculiar charms of Chinese tour in the literature as secondary to those of men (through
guides. such mechanisms as restricting travel or casting women
largely as “hostesses” to male travelers) or have in them-
Chinese tourists suffer like American tourists at
selves been subversive acts in the face of dominant male
Radio City, with the difference that Chinese
ideologies. An international perspective on tourism his-
guides are not professional, but are fruit-sellers,
tory might add new dimensions to studies of this subject.
donkey drivers and peasant boys, whose infor-
The argument has been made, for example, that women’s
mation is less correct, if their personalities more
prerogatives and desires have played a much greater role
lively.Visiting Huch’iu Hill at Soochow one day,
in establishing travel and tourism traditions in other, non-
I came back with a terrible confusion of histori-
Western countries, such as Japan.
cal dates and sequence, for the awe-inspiring
Compared with issues of class and gender, scholars
bridge suspended fifty feet over the Sword Pond,
have paid less attention to how racial or ethnic factors
with two round holes in the slabs of the bridge
relate to different expressions of tourism.What literature
through which a sword had flown up as a
exists is for the most part devoted to the emergence of
dragon, and became, according to my orange-
distinct tourism practices developed as a result of racial
selling boy, the place where the ancient beauty
discrimination, such as the advent of African-American
Hsishih attended to her morning toilet!
resorts and tourism facilities prior to the U.S. civil rights
(Hsishih’s “dressing table” was actually about ten
movement.
miles away from the place.) All he wanted was to
sell me some oranges. But then I had a chance at
Capitalism, Modernity,
seeing how folklore was changed and modified
and Leisure
and “metamorphosed.”
Although a variety of opinions may exist about when
Source: Lin Yutang. (1938). The Importance of Living: A Personal Guide to Enjoy-
ment (p. 329). New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, Inc. tourism became “modern,” people generally agree that
modern tourism practices began with the rise of indus-
trial capitalism.The familiar rise of European travel entre-
emulate the travel of the upper classes. Recent research, preneurs such as Thomas Cook has been attributed to
on the other hand, suggests that the motives associated their ability to organize large-scale tourism ventures in
with the advent of European working-class seaside resorts response to the increased wealth and leisure opportuni-
might simply be different from those of more elite travel ties afforded middle-class and working-class populations.
traditions.These styles of tourism, which often involved By the later decades of the nineteenth century, the
neighborhoods and work groups traveling together, improved transportation systems that fueled the Indus-
resulted from legitimate desires for security and the com- trial Revolution also provided new means of travel and
fort of the “mass,” as well as important expressions of tourism. The steamships and locomotives that trans-
class solidarity, more than they related to the ideals of ported raw materials and agricultural goods from the hin-
individuality and romantic self-expression associated terlands to the industrializing cities served equally to
with elite travel. bring tourists into these less-populated regions. Many of
A number of scholars have explored the relationship the large nineteenth-century resort areas established in
between travel history and gender, and many of these North America were directly capitalized and maintained
scholars have started from the premise that, at least in the by the railways, establishing a pattern of tourism invest-
West, travel traditions and tourism practices have devel- ment that survives to our time.