7.1 National Landscapes

Yan’an, Shaanxi Province, c.1944. Source.

Arm yourself with Mao Zedong Thought to become a strong revolutionary successor 用毛泽东思想武装起来做坚强的革命接班人Source.

Baota Pagoda, Yan’an, Shaanxi Province. Source.

Today

1. Continue the discussion of place and territory in China, today discussing the idea of a “national landscape.”
2. Compare the underlying strategies of both red and green tourism.
3. Explore the role that tourism and heritage play in making and maintaining national landscapes.

Reading

Denton (2013)
Wang (2019)

Key concepts

• national landscape
• red tourism
• green tourism

Reading Response

National landscape

national landscape

land linked culturally and historically to a national idea (often by the state) an emotional attachment to and aesthetic symbol of a state’s spatial authority a formal category for a protected area in England, akin to “national park”

Examples: the American west, the English countryside, Mt. Fuji in Japan

Mather Point, Grand Canyon

Broadway Tower, Cotswolds

Mount Fuji

But where in China?

Jinggangshan Source

Memorial Halls of Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and Peng Dehuai (Hunan) Source

Xibaipo Source

Pudacuo National Park, Yunnan Province

Sanjiangyuan National Park

 

Red tourism

red tourism 红色旅游

the promotion and experience of important sites of China’s revolutionary history, particulary that of key figures and events in the Communist Part of China’s history

a state project of “patriotic education” and extension of heritage from; a way of experiencing or participating in the nation

Red tourism sites

Mapping Denton’s evidence

In your group, focusing on the section in Denton (2013) below, analyze three aspects of red tourism that may be evident in the article:

	commercialization	state promotion or pedagogy	ritual or performance
Group 1: Jinggangshan
Group 2: Memorial Halls
Group 3: Xibaipo

Wrap up

• written Synthesis Reports for Thursday are due today (late is ok)
• library workshops on Chinese language sources
  • Introduction to English Language Resources on China Studies
  • Chinese Language Materials at NYUSH
  • Introduction to Primary Sources

For next class

Review both Denton (2013) and Wang (2019) and think about how you might synthesize both authors’ ideas, especially around the idea of national landscape.

References

Denton, Kirk A. 2013. “Revolutionary Memory and National Landscape: Red Tourism.” In Exhibiting the Past, 214–42. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press.

Wang, Ju-Han Zoe. 2019. “National Parks in China: Parks for People or for the Nation?” Land Use Policy 81 (2019): 825–33.