想象、展演与权力:西藏旅游过程中的“他者性”建构

Imagination, Performance and Power: The Construction of Otherness in Tibetan Tourism

在旅游的过程中,东道主常常被刻写上"他者"的文化意涵。游客带着追求"文化差异"的诉求前往"他者的世界",在异域邂逅他者。文章以拉萨大昭寺广场及其周边的八廓街作为案例地,以藏族人在八廓街的转经、磕长头行为作为实证研究的切入点,以汉族游客和藏族人两类群体作为研究对象,探讨在西藏旅游发展以及中国后改革时期转型背景下,藏族的"他者性"如何在汉-藏互动过程中被建构。文章认为,藏族的"他者性"并非具有先验的、一成不变的意涵,而是在特定的历史情境与社会互动中不断生产的。文章关注"他者性"建构过程中的两个维度——我者对于他者的凝视,藏族人对于自身的他者性的展演。一方面,转经、磕长头行为使游客将藏族人视为神圣、美好、朴实的代名词,对他者的建构存在浪漫化-理想化的倾向。另一方面,藏族他者并非凝视的被动接受者。随着"职业磕头者"的出现,一部分藏族人将凝视转化为一种文化资本,通过他者性的展演,积极地响应游客建构的文化意义,以此获取一定的物质利益。总而言之,"他者性"的建构是一个动态变化的过程,对"他者"的研究不能忽略我者及他者所处的社会情境及诉求。

In the space of encounter, as a product of tourism, indigenous people are often inscribed with the cultural connotations of otherness. Indeed, the tourist gaze, which is cast toward the attributes of cultural＂difference＂exhibited by indigenous populations, can be captured as a process in which the discursive boundaries between the self and the other are delineated. Social relations between tourists and indigenous communities, as well as the cultural meanings that emerge from ongoing interactions between them, are immensely complicated, subtle and dynamic. The tourists, carrying with them the aspiration and desire for alterity and cultural difference, enter the world of others for the purposes of identity construction and self- refashioning. Yet, native communities should not be viewed as passive objects of the desiring gazes of tourists. Rather, it is likely for them to actively seize and appropriate dominant discourses and symbolic power and translate them into a basis for identity construction or even exploitable resources.This paper uses the Jokhang Temple Square and the Barkhor-which surrounds the Jokhang-as sites of case study, and analyses how Tibetans＇ practices of ambulation and full- body prostration catalyse the negotiation and construction of otherness. Focusing on a field of social interactions that involve Han tourists and indigenous Tibetans, this paper situates its empirical research into the contexts of tourism development in Tibet and post- reform social transformation in China＇s interior（neidi）. This paper argues that, in the process of Han- Tibetan encounters, the otherness of Tibetans is neither static nor uncontested. Otherness does not exist prior to social interactions and social relations, but borne out of complex negotiations embedded in specific historical contexts and micro- dynamics of interactions.Empirically, this paper focuses on two parallel dimensions of the construction of otherness, which we respectively call processes of gaze and performance. On the one hand, the Han tourists cast the desiring gazes towards Tibetan others. Tibetans＇ mundane acts of ambulation and prostration motivate Han tourists to interpret Tibetan otherness in terms of sacredness, religiosity and innocence. The idealisation and romanticisation of Tibetan otherness, which resemble in many ways the Western construction of the myth of Shangri-La, refract the experiences of alienation and spiritual void amidst China＇s post-reform transformation. Such gazes run the risk of reducing Tibetans into passive objects of an economy of representation, which has aroused Tibetans＇ repugnance. On the other hand, however, the Tibetans practicing mundane religious rituals are hardly passive vis- à- vis the symbolic power of the Han.Instead, many of them translate effectively the tourist gaze into a situated form of cultural capital.Notably, a group of＂professional prostration practitioners＂are now active in the Jokhang Square and the Barkhor. They appropriate the tourists＇ romanticised representations into an economy of empathy and compassion, and gain economic benefit（mainly in the form of alms and donations in cash, which are offered by Han tourists） by deliberating performing their otherness. In sum, this paper suggests that otherness is a dynamic process rather than an a priori essence; and the scrutiny of otherness must take into account the historical contexts in which the self and the other are situated, as well as the immediate social interactions between them.