Performing Locality and Identity: Rickshaw Driver, Narratives, and Tourism
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The paper examines the fusion of narratives, time, space, and personal identity through ethnographic study of rickshaw driver’s performance in the context of “Hutong tour” as a form of urban tourism in Beijing, a cosmopolitan capital city with a long history and rich traditional (both vernacular and high) culture. While tour companies in Beijing are making efforts to market vernacular culture in the modernized ancient city, the study subject rickshaw driver Zhang constructs his own knowledge structure of vernacular culture in the daily practice of urban tourism. Zhang also constructs his own sense of locality and identity in the process of performing personally constructed vernacular culture and national past connecting to the tangible landscape and “scenic spots” in Beijing.