Dialectics of Authentication: Performing ‘Exotic Otherness’ in a Backpacker Enclave of Dali, China

Abstract

This paper explores dialectics of entrepreneurship and cultural consumption in the backpacker tourist enclave of ‘Foreigner's Lane’ in Dali, Yunnan Province, PR China, focusing on the role of ethnic identities and their representation. The discussion uses the performance metaphor to conceptualise tourism as a carefully staged act and illustrates the context of authentification. The paper focuses on the activities of local entrepreneurs and their construction of ‘exotic Otherness’ that reflects the preconceptions and demands of identity obsessed backpacker travellers. It is argued that the agency of local entrepreneurs undermine traditional notions of cultural producers as passive victims commodified by the globalised tourism complex.