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| THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PLACE ATTACHMENT OF ANCIENT VILLAGE RESIDENTS——A Case Study of Xidi, Hongcun and Nanping villages, southern Anhui |
| TANG Wen-yue |
| School of Tourism and Urban Management, Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanchang 330013, China |
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Abstract Place attachment, an emotional attachment to a certain place, is a kind of special phenomenon about man-land relationship and a hot topic of western recreation geography and environmental psychology. The western researches on the theory and methodology become increasingly mature. Taking ancient villages Xidi, Hongcun and Nanping in southern Anhui as examples, this paper measures place attachment of ancient village residents by designing measurement scale and analyzes its general characteristics and dimensional structure. The result shows that (1) emotional attachment exists between residents and the villages they live in, and place attachment is an objective phenomenon about man-land relationship in ancient villages; (2) residents' place attachment is comprised by two dimensions-place dependence and place identity. Place attachment comes more from place identity, an emotional attachment, than from place dependence, a functional attachment. Residents' emotional attachment to ancient villages is more significant than their functional attachment; (3) time is the main factor in the formation of residents' place attachment, which is a long process of accumulation. Place dependence is influenced mainly by the economic benefits obtained from tourism development in ancient villages, and place identity by the residence time in ancient villages. This study also demonstrates the validity of the measurement scale and the applicability of this measurement technology in place attachment research in china. Place attachment research in ancient village presents a new perspective for ancient village planning, protection and management research, which also offers basis for the establishment of ancient village protection and management measures.
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Received: 24 August 2010
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2011, Vol. 26 
