Construction And Performance Of "Otherness" In Lizhuang Ancient Town's Tourism Field

The case study of this thesis is Lizhuang Ancient Town located in the south bank of the Yangtze River in the suburbs of Yibin City,Sichuan Province.It is surrounded by the natural landscape of "Here the Yangtze River guides orientation of the Minshan Mountain then flows through rivers and lakes in central China,nearby stands the Guilun mountain with peaks in parallel hence enchanting landscape extends endless till Xianyuan Embankment.",and is known as "the First Town on the Yangtze river",with a construction history of more than 1470 years.Lizhuang Ancient Town boasts a long history and a galaxy of advanced culture and talents.It was once known as one of the"four cultural centers" during the Anti-Japanese War,and the other three were Chongqing,Chengdu and Kunming.Since the 1990s,Lizhuang Ancient Town has become a tourist destination for tourists to come for leisure and exploration due to its beautiful natural scenery and profound historical background,and has become an important business card of Sichuan's tourism and China's Anti-Japanese culture.Based on the main line of construction and performance of "otherness" in tourism field and clarifying of historical development and unique cultural resources of Lizhuang Ancient Town,this thesis aims to discuss how "otherness" of Lizhuang Ancient Town is constructed in the field of tourism,and how the residents and tourism practitioners of Lizhuang Ancient Town perform the "otherness" of tourism characteristics constructed in Lizhuang Ancient Town to obtain corresponding benefits through sorting and summarizing the theory of "field" and "otherness".Finally,based on the case study of the mode and process of construction and performance of "otherness" in Lizhuang Ancient Town,this thesis summarizes the basic logic of the construction and performance of"otherness" in Lizhuang Ancient Town in tourism field.This thesis believes that the construction of "otherness" of Lizhuang Ancient Town comes from the mirroring experience produced by tourists during their travel in Lizhuang.Tourists' imagination and gaze on the ancient town of Lizhuang and the residents of Lizhuang enable them to gain totally different experiences from their habitual living environment.This kind of experience full of "dissimilarities" is like a mirror,which not only allows tourists to see another way of life,but also makes them reflect on their daily routine.As for the performance of "otherness" of Lizhuang Ancient Town,the participation of tourism elements prompted the residents of Lizhuang Ancient Town to discover the opportunity to obtain economic benefits.In the field of tourism,therefore,residents of the ancient town and tourism practitioners use "otherness" elements constructed by the tourists to polish and interpret their own behaviors and lifestyles on the one hand,and transform the space of the ancient town with traits of "otherness" on the other hand,so that Lizhuang Ancient Town is gradually eroded by the power relations in the tourism field.