Displacing Desire : Travel and Popular Culture in China

Why do millions of people from around the world flock to Dali, a small borderland town in the Himalayan foothills of southwest China? "Lonely planeteers"-American, European, and Israeli backpackers named for the guidebook they carry-trek halfway across the globe to "get off the beaten track," yet converge here to drink coffee, eat banana pancakes, and share music from home. Coastal Chinese, prospering in the phenomenal economic growth of China's reform era, travel thousands of miles to sing songs and dress up as their favorite characters from a revolutionary-era movie musical. Overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia as well as a new generation of mainland youth follow in the footsteps of heroes and villains from Hong Kong martial arts novels, seeking an experience of a Buddhist "wild, wild West" at a martial arts theme park dubbed "Hollywood East" or "Daliwood."

Beth E. Notar is assistant professor of anthropology at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut