Citation

Du C. Front. Hist. China 2015; 10(3): 486-512.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015)

DOI

10.3868/s020-004-015-0023-1

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Love-suicide (xunqing) is often hailed as a representative component of the Naxi culture. This article examines how representations of love-suicide have transformed from an obscure social taboo to an invaluable Naxi tradition in the last two decades. While Han and Naxi cultural elites aestheticize love-suicide as a cultural symbol of moral sublimity, tourists further transform the discourse into a simultaneously spiritual and erotic experience in which they seek and create their own existential authenticity. The apparent revival is not simply a result of Naxi political resistance to the external regime or a natural return to their "authentic" culture. It rather marks another tide of radical transformation in a multi-agent and highly commercialized global world within which both minority cultures and tourists' identities are transformed. © 2015 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Language: en

Keywords

ethnic tourism; existential authenticity; love-suicide; Naxi