This book analyzes the phenomenally profitable “Red Tourism” industry in China, in which visitors make pilgrimages to sites of historical significance to the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Revolution. The book examines Red Tourism in connection with the transforming power relations between the state and the private, communication in the socialist past, and the current round of capitalization, against the backdrop of the world’s second largest economy. By re-evaluating the conventional notion of propaganda through the lens of neutral xuanchuan propaganda, the book presents a nuanced look at the social space of Red Tourism, revealing that propaganda should be conceived as a commodity, an industry, or even a media system similar to the news media. Drawn from combining fieldwork and cultural analysis spanning a decade, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of communication studies, tourism, and Chinese politics.

Because of its ability to harbor social values, norms, and beliefs, heritage has always been utilized as an ideological vehicle. One prominent example of politicizing heritage is Chinese red tourism, comprised of state-promoted tours to revolutionary memorial sites. It is expected to generate political, economic, and social benefits, particularly to reinforce the legitimate leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Statistics show that dramatic market growth in red tourism has occurred over the past decade. Yet it is still heavily driven by the government and thus whether long-term sustainability can be achieved is still questionable.This dissertation explores the dynamics of red tourism from the perspective of a meaning-making process, where tourism discourses circulate among the processes of production, transmission, and consumption. The results reveal that higher-level government primarily assumes the leading role, whereas local government is largely excluded from strategy making processes and primarily responsible for implementation and operation. Some dissonance exists between higher and lower-level governments in their goals and involvement in red tourism development. Second, intermediaries are not altruistic and attempt to maximize their own benefits. While site interpreters may provide officially authorized narratives, their primary focus is hosting higher-up administrative visitors. On the contrary, tour guides are more customer-oriented, which may lead to officially undesirable interpretations. Third, driven by multiple motives, tourists have increasingly diverse attitudes towards red heritage and participate in various political and non-political activities. A considerable degree of congruence was found between tourists' participation, motivation, memories, and perception. Quantitative results indicate that the majority of tourists have learned about the political significance and/or content of red heritage, and developed more positive attitudes towards, and support for, the CCP and the government, to a certain extent. This dissertation contributes to current research by adopting a systematic and emic perspective to explore the dynamics of red tourism. Several conceptual frameworks were developed inductively to describe the meaning-making process. Mixed methods were used to learn about tourists' consumption and perceptions of red heritage. Implications regarding enhancing the effectiveness of the meaning-making process, limitations of the study, and potential directions for future research are also discussed.

In China's New Red Guards, Jude Blanchette illuminates two trends in contemporary China that point to its revival of Mao Zedong's legacy-a development that he argues will result in a more authoritarian and more militaristic China. This book not only will reshape our understanding of the political forces driving contemporary China, it will also demonstrates how ideologies can survive and prosper despite pervasive rumors of their demise.

Examine China's impact on the world tourism market! Tourism in China is a comprehensive study of tourism and the travel industry in China--past, present, and future. Since joining many of its Asia-Pacific neighbors in identifying tourism as a vehicle for socioeconomic growth and poverty alleviation, China has become the leader in the Asian travel industry, surpassing all forecasts with high and constant growth in international and domestic tourism activity. In fact, the World Trade Organization predicts that by 2020, China will become the world's leading tourism destination, receiving 145 million visitors. This timely book examines the diverse opportunities and challenges the country's tourism industry faces in meeting those projections. A unique, interdisciplinary guide that appeals to practitioners and academics, Tourism in China has been called “probably the most in-depth analysis of China's tourism industry” by the World Trade Organization's Dr. Harsh Varma. The book presents a collection of articles--scholarly in nature, comprehensive in scope--that serves as a significant (and much-needed) reference on Chinese tourism, though not including minority or border tourism, or the Hong Kong or Taiwan markets. The industry's historical development, its impact on the Chinese economy and ecology, and its current and future markets are examined extensively. Tourism in China also examines: the impressions of Western travelers in China during the 19th century the tourism boom and its development since 1978 the development of ecotourism in China's nature reserves the effect of the tourism boom on the hotel industry the development of theme parks in China. With two-thirds of China's provincial governments committed to making tourism one of their pillar industries, it is essential that tourism professionals, academics, and students around the world have a thorough understanding of this leader in current and future world travel. Tourism in China provides a detailed look at how the country’s tourism industry was built and how it will continue to expand. Helpful tables and figures, as well as a glossary of relevant terms, make the information easy to access and understand.

What has contemporary China inherited from its revolutionary past? How do the realities and memories, aesthetics and practices of the Mao era still reverberate in the post-Mao cultural landscape? The essays in this volume propose “red legacies” as a new critical framework from which to examine the profusion of cultural productions and afterlives of the communist revolution in order to understand China’s continuities and transformations from socialism to postsocialism. Organized into five parts—red foundations, red icons, red classics, red bodies, and red shadows—the book’s interdisciplinary contributions focus on visual and performing arts, literature and film, language and thought, architecture, museums, and memorials. Mediating at once unfulfilled ideals and unmourned ghosts across generations, red cultural legacies suggest both inheritance and debt, and can be mobilized to support as well as to critique the status quo.

Covering a wide range of current issues, this comprehensive Handbook explores the links between tourism as a dynamic tertiary industry and China as the world’s most influential tourism market and destination.