无羁的快乐,缺位的道德——对网络文本中傣族泼水节游客狂欢体验的内容分析

Pleasure without Morals:The Content Analysis of Tourists' Carnival Experience in Water Splashing Festival from Travel Blog

文章以傣族泼水节的网络游记文字为分析对象,从巴赫金"狂欢"理论出发,利用内容分析方法,研究游客在傣族新年泼水节活动中的旅游体验特征。研究发现,傣族泼水节作为一种鼓励全民参与的节庆活动,传统被蔑视,等级被抹平,身份被消解。游客将日常生活中的严格规范抛诸脑后,享受当下,纵情欢乐,可以认为傣族泼水节在一定程度符合巴赫金对狂欢文化的概括。然而,游客在傣族泼水节上的狂欢体验还有巴赫金理论中未提及的两个独特表现,即狂欢体验的战争化和狂欢中的性骚扰。泼水节中类似于"战争"的体验成功地调动游客的激情,使之成为一种集体癫狂性的力量。并且,女游客更容易成为"战争"攻击的对象,这种攻击包含在性意味的体验中,并发展出比日常更为显著的形态。文章认为,傣族泼水狂欢体验区别于巴赫金理论的原因在于游客狂欢感受的去魅性与泼水节的商业化取向。

The Water Splashing Festival of the Dai ethnic minority has become a main channel for people to experience the minority culture ever since Xishuangbanna became a tourist attraction in the 1980s. The revelry features crowds, hot weather, dragon boat racing, and water fights. Previous studies suggested that tourists＇ experience of carnival is confined to the foreign land where the tourists deviate from their everyday life through abnormal behavior. However, what exactly is unique about tourist experience？ Drawing upon Bakhtin＇ s theory of carnival, this paper studied the characteristics of tourist experience in the Water Splashing Festival via content analysis of travel blogs. Mikhail Bakhtin was well known as one of the most eminent scholars and thinkers of Russia in the twentieth century. He centered his theory and studies on carnivals as they played an important role in the medieval ages, when the church dominated everyday life and people followed rituals. Bakhtin viewed carnivals as another aspect of life, where hierarchy taboos and commandments were breached. He believed that participants in a carnival are free and equal, who should not feel restrained by the real Christian authorities; therefore, carnivals are people＇s second life filled with laughter. The Water Splashing Festival demonstrates almost all characteristics of a carnival as described in Bakhtin＇ s theory, including carnival laughter, carnivalized language, carnival square, and carnival body. It is found that the Water Splashing Festival of the Dai ethnic minority, as a celebration that encourages the participation of all individuals, has made conventions despised, hierarchies overturned, and status broken down. The fact that tourists leave strict norms behind, enjoy the moment, and indulge in joy during the celebration is also believed to be consistent with Bakhtin＇ s description of carnival culture. However, the core of Bakhtin＇ s theory, which emphasizes the carnival＇ s function of challenging authority and subverting social order, is missing in the Water Splashing Festival. Tourists are motivated purely by excitement but not political goals. Analyses of the tourist experience have revealed two unique features not described in Bakhtin＇ s theory, that is, war and sexual harassment. Specifically, the war-like experience can easily stir up passion in tourists, making it a collective power of mania. Female tourists are more likely to become targets of attacks that come in the form of sexual harassment. The current study concluded that it is the disenchantment and commercialization of the traditional celebration that distinguish the Water Splashing carnival experience from those conceptualized in Bakhtin＇ s theory. Firstly, the Water Splashing Festival of the Dai minority is a grass-rooted carnival that represents a denouncement over the dominant ideology. In contrast, the carnivals that Bakhtin described serve the purpose of worshipping gods, which makes the revelry noble and mysterious. Secondly, the Water Splashing Festival has indeed become more commercialized over the past decade. Sex has become a selling point to attract more visitors and potentially generate more profit, which in turn makes the festival brutish and coarse.