Tourism and Prosperity in Miao Land

Power and Inequality in Rural Ethnic China

In this book, Xianghong Feng focuses on the intersection of tourism, power, and inequality in the southern interior of China. In this region, capital-intensive and elite-directed tourism has reshaped the social and cultural patterns of the ethnic Miao and other local residents. Using ethnographic fieldwork conducted over the course of a decade, Feng explores the cultural reconstructions of space, ethnicity, gender, and morality within changing power structures. Specifically, she examines how communities are divided by daily conflicts between the local residents, whose everyday life is disrupted by tourism, and the private developers, who along with the local authorities, control and profit from tourism. This book contributes to a better understanding of Chinese economic and sociocultural dynamics and is recommended for scholars of anthropology, sociology, economics, political science, Asian studies, and tourism studies.