追火箭的人:流动性视角下嫦娥五号发射观测旅游者民族志

Rocket Runners: A Tourists’ Ethnography of the Chang’e-5 Launch from the Perspective of Mobility

新流动性范式的提出使流动性研究更加注重流动背后所建构的社会意义。文章以嫦娥五号发射事件作为研究切入点,通过对奔赴海南文昌观看火箭发射游客的民族志研究探讨基于实地观看火箭发射的流动特征。研究发现“,追火箭”旅游的流动性体验超脱于火箭发射的具体时空场域,从出发前开始,延伸至回程后仍不断持续,且基于“追火箭”的旅游流动过程强化了旅游者的国家认同、唤起了旅游者的自我认同。此外,研究对象呈现出循环新部落的特征,虚拟流动与现实移动是一个相互影响的过程:一方面,虚拟流动通过出行前的信息流动与社交互动为现实流动奠定了社会关系基础,另一方面,现实流动深化了虚拟流动建立的社会关系层次,并为流动回虚拟世界后的情感联结持续加强夯实了根基。研究认为“,追火箭”旅游通过火箭升空、探索宇宙这一具有人类浪漫主义倾向的目标,引领旅游者的“精神流动”,体现出在对“天”的构建和探寻中人类精神的历史性和延续性。

The paradigm of mobility has shifted to encompass the social component of mobility. Now that virtual and real mobility are interactively integrated, it is necessary for researchers to extend the mobile period from before tourists leaves home to after they return there. To extend the space-time framework of mobility trips, it is essential to consider how virtual mobility and social interaction affect the development of the tourism experience. The present study examines the Chang’e-5 launch: we investigated the mobility characteristics of space tourism based on field observations of the rocket launch through participatory observation, network observation, and in-depth interviews of tourists who traveled to Wenchang to watch the launch. To determine the far-reaching impact and potential value of“rocket-chasing”tourism, we continuously tracked the participants’ WeChat Moments, videos, and blogs about rocket chasing from December 2020 to July 2021. We found that the travel experience of rocket chasing began before the participants’ departure and continued after their return home;throughout the process, the travel experience was associated with high emotions. That tourism experience enhanced the tourists’ national identity and reinforced their self-identity. We also observed that virtual and physical mobility in tourism exerted a mutual influence on each other. Through information flow and social interaction before travel, virtual mobility established a foundation of social relations for physical mobility. Conversely, physical mobility deepened the level of social relationships established by virtual mobility, and it changed the identity of social interaction from a 2-D to a 3-D structure. Levels of advancement created a solid foundation for the ongoing reinforcement of the emotional connection after the return to the virtual world. Tourists in different physical spaces can continue social interactions owing to the sharing of virtual space and time. We also identified a spiritual and imaginary mobility outside time and space with rocket-chasing tourism: the participants endowed Chang’e-5 with sensory sustenance;in their imaginations, it transformed into their eyes and bodies;it conveyed their expectations and desires;it flowed into an unreachable universe. This mobility from where the subject exists to where they do not is a unique feature of rocket-chasing tourism, and it is very different to general tourism. Such imaginary mobility has been a constant feature in the history of human civilization. The launch of Chang’e-5 made a new contribution to China’s aerospace industry,and it helped achieve great rejuvenation of the country. Chang’e-5 was a pioneering achievement in the peaceful exploration of space and in promoting the establishment of a community with a shared future for humankind. In this study, we investigated how tourism mobility triggered by the launch of Chang’e-5broadened the theoretical boundary of mobility research;we interpreted the core meaning of spiritual mobility in rocket-chasing tourism. Spiritual mobility in tourism is a very important topic, and it deserves follow-up research. From a practical perspective, we found that rocket-chasing tourism has farreaching significance in patriotic education and in developing self-identity based on a special life experience;that has strong practical implications for constructing rocket launch sites and developing space tourism.