2013 International Crafts Expo, Guiyang, 2013 中国贵州国际民族民间工艺品文化产品展览会, Nov 2013

  

from left: Ms. Fu Heng 付恒, art teacher at Guiyang Hualin Middle School 贵阳华麟中学; retired English teacher Twinkle Cao Shan 曹闪; Rose Yu Lu, English teacher at Guiyang Hualin Middle School 贵阳华麟中学 ; Sandy Yue Junwei 岳军维, English teacher at Guiyang American-Canadian International School 贵阳美加国际学校; and exhibitor, a Shui minority embroiderer, and her daughter.

Cosplay, with local Guiyang college students

Pam Najdowski, Textile Treasures, Chinese Minority Textiles & Silver Ornaments. Dealer in Miao silver work, Chinese children’s hats, embroidered & batik textiles, antique baskets & wooden tools, at Travelers Market in Santa Fe’s De Vargas Center, New Mexico, US, pamnajdowski@yahoo.com, www.textiletreasures.info, address: 1810 Paseo de la Conquistadora, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 USA 美国, tel: (505) 982-1172 or (505) 920-4970

from Textile Treasures website, www.textiletreasures.info/ :   The People’s Republic of China officially recognizes 56 nationalities which make up their population. The Han people speaking dialects of Chinese comprise approximately 91% of the population, while the minority nationalities belonging to various other linguistic groups compose the remaining 9%. The Miao, Dong, Zhaung, Yi, Yao, Hani, Buyi, and Maonan living in mountainous areas of the southwestern provinces of Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan, Yunnan, and Sichuan are the main minorities whose incredible work are represented in our website.

Rita Willaert photos of Guizhou’s minorities, on Flickr; and debate about value of tourism / reality of the minorities a tourist sees

many, many good photos of Guizhou’s minorities, see www.flickr.com/photos/rietje/

But is it real? Or just for tourist dollars?

image from article “National Tourism Fair kicks off in China’s Guizhou,” 2013-04-19 , Xinhuanet,news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2013-04/19/c_132323642.htm )

Tourism in Guizhou: the legacy of internal colonialism.
Authors Oakes, T. S.; Lew, A. A., Editors Lew, A. A.;Yu, L.
Book Tourism in China: geographic, political, and economic perspectives. 1995 pp. 203-222, ISBN 0-8133-8874-0, Record Number 19951805070
Abstract:
This chapter explores the role of tourism as a development and modernization strategy in Guizhou Province, China. In particular, it examines how tourism is promoted as part of broader efforts to commercialize the rural economy in Guizhou. Although tourism-enhanced commercial development in remote rural areas offers a practical solution to rural Guizhou’s lack of economic integration, a lingering political economy of internal colonialism is, in many ways, being reinforced by tourism development. This is illustrated on two levels. At one level, the geographical concentration of tourism income in urban areas is being encouraged. The tourism industry in Guizhou is state owned, and locally initiated commercialism, particularly in rural areas, remains undeveloped, due to powerful urban-bureaucratic control of tourism planning, investment and development. On another level tourism involves a process whereby particular images and experiences of places are constructed and sold to the tourist. This chapter traces the historical patterns of both the internal colonial legacy and the post-Mao reforms as they have affected Guizhou’s society and economy. It suggests that tourism, as a state sponsored modernization strategy is, in many ways, being channelled by the historical political economy of internal colonialism. For the state, modernization entails very specific and limited goals, ranging from a more civilized society to a stronger army. Yet, the representation of China’s non-Han periphery is very much implicated in this burgeoning discourse on Chinese modernity. Tourism development in non-Han regions of Guizhou should thus be viewed within a framework which perpetuates representation of China’s non-Han periphery as the antithesis of modernity. The state-controlled centralization of tourist investment, revenues and planning means that there are few opportunities for local engagement with tourism development, such that ethnic regions such as Guizhou are portrayed for tourists according to the dominant images expected of such regions: their remoteness, backwardness, and un-modern primitivism.

See: http://www.cabdirect.org/abstracts/19951805070.html;jsessionid=6CBAE06ABBC2BC4D6B4D7EC2F341D5F1;jsessionid=56DBAA00FE9179BF82CE102F387C45C9

typical tour itinerary of minority areas / scenic areas in Guizhou & Guangxi

Beijing- Guiyang – Kaili – Rongjiang – Zhaoxing – Sanjiang – Longsheng – Guilin – Shanghai

price:  2-5 persons: US$ 2604 per person

from http://www.topchinatravel.com/china-tours/14-days-southwest-experience-tour/

Tour Overview

Day Destination Highlights
01 Arrival Beijing Be transfer to hotel
02 Beijing Tian’anmen Square, The Forbidden City, The Temple of Heaven
03 Beijing Mutianyu Great Wall, Summer Palace
04 Beijing – Guiyang Hutong Tour by rickshaw, Fly to Guiyang
05 Guiyang – Kaili Coach to Kaili, Kaili Folk Museum, Matang Ge Village
06 Kaili- Rongjiang Coach to Rongjiang, Langde Miao Village, Chejiang Drum Tower
07 Rongjiang – Zhaoxing Basha Miao Village, Zhaoxing Dong Village, Coach to Zhaoxing
08 Zhaoxing – Sanjiang Chengyang Wind and Rain Bridge, Sanjiang Drum Tower
09 Sanjiang – Longsheng Coach to Longsheng, Longji Rice Terraces, Ping’an Zhuang Village
10 Longsheng – Guilin Coach to Guilin, Be transferred to the hotel
11 Guilin – Yangshuo – Guilin Li River Cruise, Coach to Guilin
12 Guilin – Shanghai Flight to Shanghai, Be transferred to the hotel
13 Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple, Yuyuan Garden, Oriental TV Tower, The Bund
14 Departure Shanghai Be transferred to the airport