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| THE HOSTS FACED WITH THE LENS' PRESSURE——Remark on the Research Works by Foreign Scholars about the Natives' Attitudes towards Tourists' Photographic Behaviors |
| LIU Dan-ping1, BAO Ji-gang2 |
1. School of Tourism and Hotel Management of South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China;
2. Center for Tourism Planning & Research of SUN YAT-SEN University, Guangzhou 510275, China |
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Abstract The appearance of camera and photographic technique has completely changed man's manner to watch and to be watched so as to make the behavior of the seers and the seen be solidified and materialized, bearing public and social nature. Apparently, photographing is not a simple mechanic operation but more an in tended behavior.
Photography constitutes the most significant part in modern traveling culture. And for tourists, photography also is one of their most important consume behaviors. They often give their consuming expression by those little lenses of cameras, correspondingly the tourers' privileges being completed during photography. Those natives of course can express their attitude being tourees or photographees. That is to say, tourists have exerted some kinds forces on hosts in fact when focusing their lens on those natives. So a series of contradictions and problem are conduced gradually in relation to equality, morality and development. Here the author tend to define the relationship between tourists, natives, and camera lens by such formula "tourer-cameralens-touree". In generalization there are three kinds of reactions that natives might do. Firstly, the hosts choose to break away when they find being pictured. Secondly, the hosts negotiate with the tourists by so-called "image accommodation" or "image adaptation".That is to say, the natives like to exhibit the "realest" scenes, the most typical buildings, or the most "primitive" dressing, which is so-called model culture, or "fabricated authenticity" to play up to photographic consumption.
In present-day China, the consumption in photographic culture is unusually brisk. The place in lens is likely to evolve into a tourist area. Some well-protected areas with natural and humane landscapes tend to be a destination for photographic amateurs. As a matter of fact, we should study the questions "how do the hosts might transact the vistors' voyeuristic rapacious lens?" Maybe it is an important question. And every scholar who owned social conscience should be answer.
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Received: 19 September 2005
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2006, Vol. 21 
