CONSTRUCTION OF SELF-IDENTITY AND EMBODIED EXPERIENCE: A CASE STUDY OF CHINESE GAY TOURISTS IN THAILAND
XIANG Ke-heng1,2, YU Yue1, HUNG Kam1
1. School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China;
2. School of Culture and Tourism, Zhejiang International Studies University, Hangzhou 310012, China
Abstract:Research on gay tourism has mainly focused on Western countries such as Europe and the United States, and relatively little is known about the tourism behavior and psychology of gay tourists in Asia. Given the unique social norms and relatively conservative stance of Asian cultures, the tourism experience and psychology of Asian gay tourists may be different from that of the West, and the Asian gay tourist Psychological and behavioral changes and bodily sensory perceptions of Asian gay tourists have also become a neglected segmentation topic in existing research. This study investigated the identity reconstruction and embodied experiences of Chinese gay tourists using a qualitative approach. Based on 16 diaries and 6 in-depth interviews with Chinese gay tourists, our findings show that: 1) The narrative process of identity and embodied experience of Chinese gay tourists to Thailand consists of identity indecision and bodily expectation, identity and bodily experience adaptation, identity and embodied experience struggle, identity reinforcement and physical and mental burnout regulation, identity convergence and embodied perception; 2) The narrative construction space of identity and embodied experience in Chinese gay and lesbian travel to Thailand provides a transformation-oriented path of identity-body experience through which Chinese gay and lesbian tourists adjust their self-identity and adapt to the corresponding bodily sensory experience and bodily sociological context.
向科衡, 俞越, 洪琴. 身份认同与具身体验内在响应研究——以中国“同志”赴泰旅游为例[J]. 人文地理, 2022, 37(3): 39-49.
XIANG Ke-heng, YU Yue, HUNG Kam. CONSTRUCTION OF SELF-IDENTITY AND EMBODIED EXPERIENCE: A CASE STUDY OF CHINESE GAY TOURISTS IN THAILAND. HUMAN GEOGRAPHY, 2022, 37(3): 39-49.
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