Disneyfication is a term assigned designed to describe and denigrate a society that has an increasing similarity to the Disney theme parks. It is used to describe a diluted or simplified version of the original form. This risk free sanitized environment replaces anything negative with a neutral watered down alternative. In terms of physical place, be it streets, towns or whole cities, it is primarily used to define a wholly unoriginal “soulless” place (A. Bryman, 1999)
Through my research online, I have discovered that Nanjing has been split into two parts.
One which retains it's authentic culture by preserving historic sites and with minimal foreign influence.
And the other, a side of Nanjing which has completely devoted itself to Tourism.
I will be using the accounts of two online reviews as evidence to this phenomenon.
The first is from DJ Strouse http://djstrouse.com/page/35/
DJ Strouse states that "After the Morning of Obstacles, we had almost lost faith in our search for Ancient China, but Nanjing quickly reassured us. Almost immediately after lunch, we stumbled upon a massive, multi-tiered Buddhist temple. Unlike many of the tourist-filled temples of Shanghai, this temple was a place of pilgrimage and we witnessed more prayers & rituals than camera flashes, as people burned incense, knelt before giant bronze idols, and tossed coins into the high, narrow rim of a tall pot"
This shows that Nanjing still retains it's authenticity and does not allow it's sites to be converted to watered down disneyfied forms.
However there are disneyfied effects in Nanjing, such as a street created for foreigners.
"we chose a promisingly elegant Cantonese restaurant in the Nanjing equivalent of Shanghai’s Xintiandi (Disney-like district of Western restaurants for expats).
As this meal has been deemed “the meal which shall not be spoken of”, I will treat it only long enough to tell you that it was a model of cultural miscommunication and that we left 150 yuan on the table and bolted after two and a half hours, having been served only hot water and about half our dishes."
However, the food cannot match up to the real deal as it is only a form of merchandising and hybrid consumption.
The second online review, is by Geckozo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/blog-420689.html
Geckozo states that certain well received and highly visited sites have become disneyfied such as popular streets.
"We walked back via the very pretty canal area and semi-pedestrianised square and surrounding streets, where tour boats ply their trade, buildings are very traditional (even though I doubt they are very old), bridges have a wannabe Venice look and a squillion Chinese tourists throng. In the evening we wandered here again and were blown away by the twinkly lights, the even thicker throngs and oh, the kitsch of it. It was fabulous. Everything that could be trimmed with coloured lights was gleaming, huge illuminated dragons and rotating circles glowed from the wall of a temple whose wall banked the canal, the whole place was unbelievable. But overall, the effect was rather lovely, maybe because of the happy buzzing crowd, maybe it had just been quite well done, and though it can only be described as complete Disneyfication, it worked. "
This shows that Nanjing will succumb to tourist pressure and allow certain places to become disneyfied so as to improve its tourist revenue.
This can be seen in the shop houses in the area which look autehntic but are actually tourist shops selling commodified goods and services tiered towards tourist revenue. These shops not only take away the authenticity of the original product or service but add on to the disneyfication of the area.
Geckozo also mentions on performative labor.
"language being an issue, but we made friends with the staff in the restaurant quickly - I don't think they get many linguistically challenged foreigners willing to have a go without a tour guide. "
This shows that front line service work is slowly becoming a performance where they have to be friendly as part of their labour and service.
As such, I can conclude that Nanjing is not immune to disneyfication and I also feel that disneyfication might be the only way to rise above other locations to gain a higher tourist revenue.
Though disneyfication is bad and degenerates a place in terms of culture and heritage, but without it, the rise to a higher tourist receipt and influx will be a steep up hill crawl.
As such, lose the dignity of heritage and gain economic advantage?
Or stick to one's traditions and gain a higher economy the hard way.
There is also the problem of commodification of culture and traditions.
The plum blossom festivals held since 1996 is a good example of commodification as it is held yearly to a crowd of hundreds of tourists, this is an attempt to promote Nanjing's beauty and culture. The entertainment and goods sold during the festival are commodified and disneyfied versions of their original.
Normal cultural and traditional ways of life are altered specially for the event and this causes an eventual change to Nanjing culture and heritage due to commodification.
Referenced from : http://www.nanjing2014.org/en/green_nanjing/about_nj/2010/0726/213.html
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