主题公园化古镇的后现代原真性体验及生成机制——以乌镇西栅景区为例

The Post-modern Authentic Tourist Experience and Its Generation Mechanism in Thematic Historic Town: A Case Study of Wuzhen West Scenic Zone

近年来逐渐兴起的主题公园化古镇正成为古镇旅游发展的新模式。文章基于后现代原真性理论构建分析框架,以乌镇西栅景区为研究案例,采取质性研究方法,探讨后现代旅游者在主题公园化古镇中的原真性体验及其生成机制。研究发现:后现代旅游者能够从“假造”的主题公园化古镇中获得“真实”体验。一方面是把“假”的客体当作“真”的来体验,另一方面是在“假”的客体中体验到主体的“真”,可称之为超真实的旅游体验。景观代码、叙事代码和区位代码的综合调制塑造了主题公园化古镇的拟真,后现代旅游者通过想象匹配与具身感受对拟真进行热原真化,最终使超真实的旅游体验得以生成。区位代码及其作用是主题公园化古镇区别于主题公园的超真实旅游体验生成机制的根本特点。研究结论拓展了对后现代旅游情境下主题公园化古镇的理解,并有助于促进对古镇遗产保护与旅游发展之间关系的反思。

Historic towns have become increasingly popular among tourists in recent years. In this context, however, tourism development at some historic towns is in favour of the theme park development mode. That is, each and every town usually adopts a theme, and the thematic planning requires exquisite spatial design and various organizational activities, in addition to many modern facilities catering visitors’ demand for sightseeing, leisure and recreation. In this article, we define this type of destinations as thematic historic towns, which, as we suggest, might be regarded as a kind of post-modern themed space. The case study employed in this study is Wuzhen West Scenic Zone, a wellknown thematic historic town located in Zhejiang province, China. We have investigated how the, socalled, authentic experience of post-modern tourists is produced during their visit. The research methods deployed here are primarily qualitative, and we collected data both from the Internet and the field. As the research outcomes manifest, some tourists, who paid a visit to the thematic historic towns,more or less share some post-modern tourists’ characteristics. Instead of being obsessed with pursuing objective authenticity like Dean McConnell’s tourists, they seemed to have celebrated the“fake”or simulated nature of the open-air theme parks. In a way, their experience is produced through consuming the hyperrealities. Specifically, this hyperreality-induced experience of the post-modern tourists includes two aspects:(1) Indistinguishing the“fake”from the“true”. That is, some tourists are convinced that they have experienced the“true”atmosphere even though they are immersed in the highly simulated atmosphere at Jiangnan water town, and the“true”diversified integration through enjoyment of service brought by the combination of modern and traditional elements;(2) In this hyperreal space tourists might be recovered from the rhythm of slow life, which may be quite from that of their everyday life. Sometimes, they may even develop somewhat nostalgia sense, becoming crave for the past. In this self-illusion process, their‘self’might be refigured. With respect to the production of the hyper-real travel experience, it might be attributed to constant simulation by developers and selfillusion, which is usually performed by post-tourists as aforementioned. The simulation of tourist space,in particular, requires manipulation of miscellaneous code, notably, including those derived from the traditional landscape, historical narrative and the authentic location. These codes are used by the developers of thematic historic town, via the processes involving site purification, spatial narrative,modern setting and propaganda. Moreover, this article manifests that location code and its function play a key role in distinguishing thematic historic town from conventional theme parks(e.g. Disneyland).We argue that the existential authenticity is the essential part of post-modern authenticity. Additionally,as for the practical level, this paper implies that the heritage preservation of ancient towns may face greater challenges and its relationship with tourism development should be reckoned more carefully in face of the post-modern tourism consumption.