Honeymoon Tourism as Romantic Consumption in China

Gender, Place & Culture

This study focuses on two marginalized groups in Chinese society: 27-years old (or older) 'left-over' (never-married) women and divorced women. Both these kinds of women are subject to discrimination and ridicule by the mass media and even their own families. This essay argues that despite the economic prosperity China has enjoyed over the last thirty years, gender relations in the country are rooted in a patriarchal discourse that reveals a hybridity of old and new ideals-family responsibility and individual self-fulfillment-in which the pursuit of love and marital commitment cannot be divorced from larger social-cultural-economic structures that endorse intergenerational responsibility and obligation, as well as promote gender inequality in the home and workplace. For these two groups of ostracized women, romance with foreign men may seem an alternative to the constraints of this structural framework. Drawing from a pool of evidence, published interviews, media reports, and printed ethnographic studies, this study analyzes the predicaments of leftover and divorced women, the interactions between these women and foreign men, and what their experiences with these men say about gender and racial differences in relation to gender inequality. Introduction: gender inequality and marriage China's compressed modernity, from a socialist collective to a neoliberal consumer economy in which a 'new moral-sexual-economic order' has emerged, muddles how the ideals of marriage, gender roles, and personal fulfillment fit into this changing scenario (Sun and Wei 2017). Historically, espousal of the values of love and intimacy did not get much of a chance in twentieth-century China when the country became enmeshed into the two great discourses of liberation and revolution that ultimately prioritized a couple's ideological commitment to the Communist Party (Pan 2015, 280). Beginning with the reforms of the 1980s, China's rapid economic rise from third-world status to global superpower fueled new ways

Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference Proceedings, Perth, Australia, 2011

Couples on their honeymoon represent a vital part of the tourism market. Since the destination decision for honeymooners is a joint decision, paired in-depth interviews were conduced with ten British couples to explore their honeymoon destination decision making. Themes that arose from this qualitative study which were similar to other more general studies on destination choice included: culture, natural environment, and accommodation. New themes developed from the research included familiarity, romance, and budget. In these instances, couples were more likely to stretch their budget, or appear to be less concerned about the cost of their trip, as many see it as a once in a lifetime experience. This indicates that this valuable segment of the market should be further explored.

Since the late 1990s, it has been very fashionable for newlywed Chinese couples in big cities to have wedding photos taken in professional photography studios. The studios provide wedding photography packages offering a choice of scenes and costumes representative of different Chinese historical periods and gender roles. In popular studios in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, a middle range price package (RMB 5000 or CAD 700 and more) includes five to eight sets of costumes and corresponding studio settings. Apart from the "must have" Western white dress and black tuxedo, newlywed couples often choose other sets of costumes ranging from ancient Han 2 Chinese traditional wedding clothes to Western-style formal evening wear and pre-revolution Han Chinese everyday costumes.

The China Quarterly, 2007

Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies, 2013

In response to social and cultural problems in the wake of corrosive influences arising from the Cultural Revolution and Western individualism, two intellectuals in China have offered different versions of wedding rituals based upon the Confucian Classics in order to restore ritual as a powerful tool for individual, family, social and national renewal. Zhu Jieren 朱杰人, former director and current CEO of East China Normal University Press, planned a "modern version" of the wedding ceremony from Zhu Xi's Family Rituals (朱子 家 禮 ) for his son's ceremony in Shanghai on December 5, 2009. Zhang Xianglong 張祥龍, a philosophy professor at Peking University in Beijing, orchestrated a more antique Confucian wedding for his son in Beijing on June 20, 2010. Both made some accommodations to modern realities and used the same core quotations from the ancient ritual classics; moreover, both public intellectuals are pursuing reform from the grassroots of society and thus differ significantly from the state's approaches to reviving tradition and strengthening the Chinese family. In addition to explaining why each intellectual undertook his Confucian wedding project, we will explore why conservative proponents of "restoring antiquity" have criticized the Zhu wedding and lauded the Zhang wedding. Our interviews with participants reveal how profoundly moved the young couples were by the traditional ceremonies; thus, both Zhu and Zhang succeeded in giving new life to classical rites and leading participants to reconnect to traditional aesthetics and values.

Tourist Studies, 2019

Young independent Chinese travellers are increasingly visiting Pai, a small town in northern Thailand, in part influenced by the popularity of the 2009 Thai movie ‘Pai in Love’. Using a performance perspective, combined with theory on affordances, which have not yet been applied in the growing body of research on Chinese tourists, this paper examines the wide variety of performances in Pai by young independent Chinese travellers, many of which revolve around tourist photography. Drawing upon participant observation and in-depth interviews with Chinese travellers in Pai, the findings reveal that many young Chinese independent traveller performances in Pai revolve around the creation of online self-identities of prosperity and globalisation, love and alternative social identities such as Chinese hipsterism or Xiao Qing Xin. Central to many of these hybrid performances is the digital camera, which affords new, more playful, embodied ways of encountering and interacting with tourist attractions, whilst simultaneously offering a means of recording and refining performances which are then distributed via the ‘statusphere’. The paper’s use of a performance lens provides new insights into Chinese tourism consumption, and highlights the importance of physical, material and social affordances in performing tourism.

Taiwan Journal of East Asian Studies, 2013

In response to social and cultural problems in the wake of corrosive influences arising from the Cultural Revolution and Western individualism, two intellectuals in China have offered different versions of wedding rituals based upon the Confucian Classics in order to restore ritual as a powerful tool for individual, family, social and national renewal. Zhu Jieren 朱杰人, former director and current CEO of East China Normal University Press, planned a "modern version" of the wedding ceremony from Zhu Xi's Family Rituals (朱子 家禮) for his son's ceremony in Shanghai on December 5, 2009. Zhang Xianglong 張祥龍, a philosophy professor at Peking University in Beijing, orchestrated a more antique Confucian wedding for his son in Beijing on June 20, 2010. Both made some accommodations to modern realities and used the same core quotations from the ancient ritual classics; moreover, both public intellectuals are pursuing reform from the grassroots of society and thus differ significantly from the state's approaches to reviving tradition and strengthening the Chinese family. In addition to explaining why each intellectual undertook his Confucian wedding project, we will explore why conservative proponents of "restoring antiquity" have criticized the Zhu wedding and lauded the Zhang wedding. Our interviews with participants reveal how profoundly moved the young couples were by the traditional ceremonies; thus, both Zhu and Zhang succeeded in giving new life to classical rites and leading participants to reconnect to traditional aesthetics and values.

Environment-Behaviour Proceedings Journal

Micro weddings have replaced large weddings during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a culture where weddings celebration is significant, the foregoing of VFR, music, traditional foods, and gifts are considered a huge sacrifice for both the host and guests. The pandemic has forced the number of attendees to be reduced, from only online participation to a micro wedding. This study analyses a celebrated event for Muslims in two Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia and Malaysia. It explores the guest perceptions, expectations, satisfaction, and experiences during the event. A qualitative method utilizing thematic analysis generated four themes: functional, social, price, and emotional values. Keywords: Micro-wedding; pandemic; perceived value; guest experience eISSN: 2398-4287 © 2022. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–revi...

2012

Couples on their honeymoon represent a vital part of the tourism market. Since the destination decision for honeymooners is a joint decision, paired in-depth interviews were conducted with ten British couples to explore their honeymoon destination decision making. The themes that arose from this qualitative study were consistent with more general studies on destination choice, including: culture, natural environment, and accommodation. New themes developed from the research included familiarity, romance, and budget. The ...

The peasantry is probably the last social category that researchers of technology and society readily associate with the use of high technologies such as the Internet. But in China recently, tens of thousands of peasant entrepreneurs, engaged in a unique form of rural tourism popularly called nongjiale (delights in farm guesthouses), have adopted the Internet as a medium for advertising their farm guesthouses. This paper is an anthropological study of how Chinese peasant entrepreneurs' adoption of the Internet is engrained in the broader material and symbolic orders of contemporary Chinese society. By exploring the way in which the Chinese peasants are idiosyncratically involved with the Internet, it also questions whether STS (Science, Technology, and Society) concepts such as users and non-users, developed essentially within Euro-American contexts, are adequate to explain the symbolic appropriations of high-tech in pursuit of modernity in China today.