Tourism Symbol Production In Ethnic Areas

Whether studying the static structure or the dynamic process of human social culture,symbolic anthropology used to focus on the established symbols.Researchers tend to focus on observable symbols,analyzable internal structures and corresponding cultural explanations,and pay less attention to the process in which symbols are given meanings.In fact,everything in human society always carries certain functions and meanings.As far as material culture is concerned,function and meaning are not only changed in different stages of social life,but also constantly produced,reproduced,expanded,reduced or migrated at the symbolic level.Therefore,in this sense,we can use the dynamic perspective of Peirce's semiotics and the social life of things to re-examine the process in which symbols are given meanings and the initiative of symbolic subject in this process by case study,and further reflect on the inspiration by Peirce's semiotics as one of the theoretical origins of symbolic anthropology to the dynamic process research of symbols.And tourist souvenir is just a kind of special symbol,and it's a part of the cultural discourse of tourist destination.As a kind of object selected,reformed and consumed on the basis of its connection with the culture of tourist destination in the process of tourism development,the tourist souvenir itself bears the symbolic functions of embodying the local culture and constructing the tourist image.Especially,the tourist souvenirs which are recognized as having local characteristics are more important symbols for tourists to recognize the history and culture of tourist destinations,and also arouse corresponding tourism expectations.Moreover,the design and production of tourist souvenir also involve the localization of heterogeneous cultural images.The changes of its material representation,symbolic meaning and cultural image are gradually generated in the interaction between people and objects,people and people.Therefore,the social life course in which tourist souvenir is produced as symbol also provides us with specific and subtle cases in the research of the process in which symbols are given meanings.The Old Town of Lijiang is a tourist attraction with early development and high popularity in China.The successful tourist souvenirs here,such as Bunong Bell,Dongba Paper,have been repeatedly mentioned as examples by relevant researches.This paper takes a special tourist souvenir named Bunong Bell in the ancient town of Lijiang,formed under the joint action of foreigners,locals and tourists in more than 20 years,as a typical case,and explores the changes of this object originating from the Ancient Tea-horse Road between Yunnan and Tibet in its role,meaning and image during tourism development through long-term field work.Through combing the cultural background of the bell culture on the Ancient Tea-horse Road,we can analyze the local cultural tradition inherited by the bells like Bunong Bell here from the new realistic context,point out the possibility of its departure from practical goods to spiritual products and symbolization.Then,through a detailed analysis of the origin and development of Bunong Bell and its practical impact,this paper points out the reasons for the change of its character and function as a symbol in different stages,and the relationship between this process and the construction of the overall tourism image of Lijiang.Finally,under the influence of consumption ritual,interaction in host-guest relationship,image dissemination and interpretation,this object changes its role from a index in the culture of horse caravan to a symbol in the culture of the Old Town of Lijiang.And with the keynote of auspiciousness,it is further transformed into one of the bearers of local Naxi culture.Finally through the gaze of tourists and their words and images,the symbolic achievement of bells here in Lijiang is presented.While taking the dynamic perspective of Peirce's semiotics and the social life of things as the guidance of this study about the process in which Bunong Bell are given meanings as a local cultural symbol in the Old Town of Lijiang.this paper also integrates the theory of symbolic anthropology.the theory of knowledge in production and symbolic capital,the theory of tourist's gaze and authenticity into the concrete analysis in order to enhance the understanding the characteristics of symbol shaping in different stages.Finally,starting from this case of symbol production,it responds to the existing discussion of symbolic thinking mode among domestic symbolic anthropologists:in addition to the one-dimensional symbolic thinking of "things are endowed with certain meanings because they have certain characteristics",which was emphasized by symbolic anthropology in the past,there exists another dimension in the production of symbols,that is,human beings choose and construct from specific objects in order to convey the given meanings,and make them established and get a certain range of dissemination and acceptance in the process of interaction between subject and object,thus,it is stabilized as a symbol.The rediscovery of this symbolic thinking dimension also makes us further realize the initiative and random choice of the symbolic subject in this process.At the same time,through the experience summary of the cultural symbol production in tourism situation and the Lijiang bell as a successful case,it also provides some reference for the future development of tourist souvenirs and the transformation of cultural capital with local characteristics.