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2020-2021 Colloquium Series  Dressed up in their traditional garments, the senior villagers sat by the village Tong Gu Chang (Bronze Drum Plaza), waiting for their turn to perform for the tourists in Upper Langde Village in Guizhou, China [盛装的年长村民坐在中国贵州郎德上寨的铜鼓场旁等候上场给游客表演]. Xianghong Feng, Associate Professor Friday, April 9, 4PM-6PM PST This research attempts to explicate a nuanced interaction between the ethnic minorities in southwest China and the Chinese state, centering on tourism development. The mountainous zone of southwest China is inhabited by ethnically diverse populations, including the Miao, who were historically independent from distant state centers. Nevertheless, despite the remoteness this region has become sites of active statecraft in the name of development, and tourism provides a unique lens to illuminate the power dynamics between these non-Han ethnic groups and the Chinese state in modern era. Through an ethnographic case centered on Upper Langde Miao village in Guizhou of China, this research looks at the meanings and significance of state practices for the villagers in a tourism context. It documents the transformation from Upper Langde’s self-governed to county-government-directed tourism and explains the seemingly radical changes from the villagers’ avoidance of the state to their recent desire, despite their distrust, for a just state to deliver the economic fruits of tourism development. Giving agency to those on the margins of the nation-state, this research applies a historical perspective to explore the “deeper roots” of Upper Landge resistance to the local government’s involvement in the village tourism. It distinguishes between one’s situational adoption of the dominant group’s cultural markers and a more subjective identification with an imagined Chinese political community.
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