Chapter 17 Diaspora Community Festivals and Tourism
DOI: 10.23912/978-1-910158-15-9-2644 | ISBN: 978-1-910158-15-9 |
Published: January 2015 | Component type: chapter |
Published in: Focus On Festivals | Parent DOI: 10.23912/978-1-910158-15-9-2599 |
Abstract
Festivals that celebrate the identities, cultures and traditions of diverse minority, ethnic, diaspora communities are significant cultural and social phenomena. They may also contribute to the visitor economy, for example through increasing tourism income, government revenue and employment (Maclinchey, 2008; O’Sullivan and Jackson, 2002; Picard and Robinson, 2006). Furthermore, diaspora community festivals may contribute to enriching the development of place-images and destination marketing themes that seek to reflect diversity and promote a ‘globalised’ image of the population of the area (usually city) where such festivals take place (Paradis, 2002). As a consequence, ‘festival tourism’ has entered the language of tourism studies, defined as “a phenomenon in which people from outside a festival locale visit during the festival period†(O’Sullivan and Jackson, 2002: 325). This chapter contributes to festival tourism studies by exploring Chinese New Year festivals in the UK and their emerging prominence as tourism attractions. Research in this area examines its potential for building bridges between communities and cultures. Some scholars problematise the term ‘festival tourism’ and resist defining it as a particular category of the tourism market. For example, Quinn (2009) refuses to employ this term, arguing that the primary purpose of festivals is not usually the generation of tourism. Some contemporary festivals do possess a strong place-marketing or tourism objective as part of their rationale. However, many ‘traditional festivals’ that celebrate community beliefs, social values and identities do not have tourism as a primary purpose (though this may be a significant secondary outcome). Examples include festivities associated with belief systems and annual cultural events such as those associated with the Chinese New Year (Bakhtin, 1984; Humphrey, 2001; Magliocco, 2006). Although these festivals have changed in their form over time and some of them may have associations with tourism, they cannot be equated with events that are planned primarily for tourism.
Sample content
Contributors
- Yi Fu (Author)
- Philip Long (Author)
- Rhodri Thomas (Author)
For the source title:
- Chris Newbold, De Montfort University (Editor)
- Christopher Maughan, Freelance writer (Editor)
- Jennie Jordan, De Montfort University (Editor)
- Franco Bianchini, Leeds Beckett University (Editor)
Cite as
Fu, Long & Thomas, 2015
Fu, Y., Long, P. & Thomas, R. (2015) "Chapter 17 Diaspora Community Festivals and Tourism" In: Newbold, C., Maughan, C., Jordan, J. & Bianchini, F. (ed) . Oxford: Goodfellow Publishers http://dx.doi.org/10.23912/978-1-910158-15-9-2644
Save, bookmark or recommend
 Save on Mendeley |  Share on Twitter |  Share on LinkedIn |  Share on Facebook |
References
Akilli, S. (2003) Chinese Immigration to Britain in the Post-WWII Period, retrieved 19/10/2007, from www.usp.nus.edu.sg/post/uk/mo/sakilli10.html
Anderson, B. (1983) Imagined Communities, London: Verso.
Bakhtin, M. (1984) Rabelais and His World, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Bankston, C. L. and Henry, J. (2010) Spectacles of ethnicity: festivals and the commodification of ethnic culture among Louisiana Cajuns. Sociological Spectrum, 20(4), 377-407.
https://doi.org/10.1080/02732170050122611
Becker, C. (2002) We are real slaves, real ismkhan: Memories of the Trans-Saharan slave trade in the Tafilalet of South-Eastern Morocco. The Journal of North African Studies, 7(4), 97-121.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13629380208718485
Beezley, W. H., Martin, C. E. and French, W. E. (eds.) (1994) Rituals of Rule, Rituals of Resistance: Public Celebrations and Popular Culture in Mexico, Wilmington and Delaware: SR Books.
Benton, G. and Gomez, E. T. (2011) The Chinese in Britain, 1800 - Present: Economy, Transnationalism, Identity, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Birmingham City Council. (2012) Chinese New Year in Birmingham, www.birmingham.gov.uk/cny. Retrieved December 9, 2012
Brinkherhoff, J. (2006) Diasporas, skills transfer and remittances: evolving perceptions and potential, in C. Wescott and J. Brinkerhoff, (eds.) Converting Migration Drains into Gains: Harnessing the Resources of Overseas Professionals, Manila: Asian Development Bank, 1-32
Carnegie, E. and Smith, M. (2006) Mobility, diaspora and the hybridisation of festivity: The case of the Edinburgh Mela, in D. Picard and M. Robinson (eds.), Festivals, Tourism and Social Change: Remaking Worlds (pp. 255-268), Clevedon: Channel View Publications.
https://doi.org/10.21832/9781845410490-017
Chan, S. (1999) What is this thing called Chinese diaspora? Contemporary Review, 274, 81-83.
Clifford, J. (1994) Diasporas. Cultural Anthropology, 9(3), 302-338.
https://doi.org/10.1525/can.1994.9.3.02a00040
Cohen, A. (1982) A polyethnic London carnival as a contested cultural performance. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 5(1), 23-41.
https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.1982.9993358
Cohen, R. (1997) Global Diasporas: An Introduction, London: University College London Press.
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203228920
Crichow, M. A. and Armstrong, P. (2010) Carnival Praxis, Carnivalesque Strategies and Atlantic Interstices. Social Identities, 16(4), 399-414.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2010.497693
Durkheim, E. (1976) The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, London: George Allen and Unwin LTD.
Esman, M. J. (2009) Diasporas and international relations, in M. J. Esman (Ed.), Diasporas in the Contemporary World (pp. 120-132). Cambridge and Malden: Polity Press.
Falassi, A. (ed.). (1987) Time Out of Time: Essays on Festival, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.
Fu, Y. (2012) Exploring Diaspora Communities' Festivals: Chinese New Year in England, Leeds Metropolitan University, Unpublished Phd Thesis. Fu, Y., Long, P. and Thomas, R. (In press) Guanxi and the Organisation of Chinese New Year Festivals in England. Event Management.
Gilroy, P. (1993) The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness, London: Verso.
Green, G. L. and Scher, P. W. (eds.). (2007) Trinidad Carnival: The Cultural Politics of A Transnational Festival, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
Hall, S. (1990) Cultural identity and diaspora, in J. Rutherford (ed.), Identity: Community, Culture, Difference (pp. 222-237), London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Humphrey, C. (2001) The Politics of Carnival: Festive Misrule in Medieval England, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Jackson, P. (1987) Street life: the politics of carnival, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 6(2), 213-227.
https://doi.org/10.1068/d060213
Johnson, H. (2007) 'Happy Diwali!' Performance, multicultural soundscapes and intervention in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Ethnomusiology Forum, 16(1), 71-94.
https://doi.org/10.1080/17411910701276526
Joppke, C. (1996) Multiculturalism and immigration: A comparison of the United States, Germany and Great Britain, Theory and Society, 25 (4), 449-550. Klaić, D. (undated) Challenges and strategies. In D. Klaić, A. Bollo and U. Bacchella (eds.), Festivals: Challenges of Growth, Distinction, Support Base and Internationalisation (pp. p.28-34), Estonia: Department of Culture, Tartu City Government.
https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00160674
Labrador, R. N. (2002) Performing identity: the public presentation of culture and ethnicity among Filipinos in Hawai'i, Journal of Cultural Research, 6 (3), 287-307.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1362517022000007220
Lau, S. C. K. (2002) Chinatown Britain, London: Chinatown Online.
Lew, A. A. and Wong, A. (2004) Sojourners, Guanxi and Clan Associations: social capital and overseas Chinese tourism to China, in T. Coles and D. J. Timothy (eds.), Tourism, Diasporas and Space (pp. 202-214). London and New York: Routledge.
Ma, L. J. C. (2003) Space, place and transnationalism in the Chinese diaspora, in L. J. C. Ma and C. L. Cartier (eds.), The Chinese Diaspora, Space, Place, Mobility and Identity (pp. 1-50), Oxford: Lanham, Rowman and Littlefield.
Maclinchey, K. A. (2008) Urban ethnic festivals, neighbourhoods and the multiple realities of marketing place, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 25(3), 251-264.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10548400802508309
Magliocco, S. (2006) The Two Madonnas: The Politics of Festival in a Sardinian Community (2nd Edition), Long Grove: Waveland Press.
Newell, V. (1989) A note on the Chinese New Year celebration in London and Its socio-economic background, Western Folklore, 48(1), 61-66.
https://doi.org/10.2307/1499983
O'Sullivan, D. and Jackson, M. J. (2002) Festival tourism: a contributor to sustainable local economic development? Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 10(4), 325-342.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09669580208667171
Paradis, T. W. (2002) The political economy of theme development in small urban places: the case of Roswell, New Mexico, Tourism Geographies, 4(1), 22-43.
https://doi.org/10.1080/146166800110102607
Picard, D. and Robinson, M. (2006) Remaking worlds: festivals, tourism and change, in D. Picard and M. Robinson (eds.), Festivals, Tourism and Social Change: Remaking Worlds (pp. 1-31), Clevedon, Buffalo andToronto: Channel View Publications.
https://doi.org/10.21832/9781845410490-003
Quinn, B. (2009) Problematising 'festival tourism': arts festivals and sustainable development in Ireland, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 14(3), 288-306.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09669580608669060
Safran, W. (1991) Diasporas in modern societies: myths of homeland and return, Diaspora, 1(1), 83-89.
https://doi.org/10.1353/dsp.1991.0004
Said, E. W. (1978) Orientalism, London: Penguin.
Scher, P. W. (1999) West Indian American Day: becoming a tile in the gorgeous mosaic: Western Indian American Day in Brooklyn, in J. Pulis (ed.), Religion, Diaspora and Cultural Identity: A Reader in the Anglophone Caribbean (pp. 45-66), New York: Gordon and Breach.
Shi, Y. (2005) Identity construction of the Chinese diaspora, ethnic media use, community formation, and the possibility of social activism, Continuum, 19(1), 55-72.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1030431052000336298
Shuval, J. T. (2000) Diaspora migration: definitional ambiguities and a theoretical paradigm, International Migration, 38(5), 41-56.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2435.00127
Turner, V. (1995) The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-structure, New York: Aldine De Gruyter.
Visit London. (2012) Chinese New Year 2013. Retrieved December 9, 2012, from http://www.visitlondon.com/
Wilks, L. (2011) Bridging and bonding: social capital at music festivals, Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events, 3(3), 281-297.
https://doi.org/10.1080/19407963.2011.576870
Zweig, D., Fung, C. S. and Han, D. (2008) Redefining the brain drain: China's 'diaspora option', Science Technology Society, 13(1), 1-33.
https://doi.org/10.1177/097172180701300101