红楼梦和大观园外文文献翻译中英文.docx

1、红楼梦和大观园外文文献翻译中英文红楼梦和大观园外文翻译中英文英文Tourism, a Classic Novel, and Television：The Case of Co Xueqins Dream of the Red Mansions and Grand View Gardens, BeijingChris RyanAbstractThis article reports a study of the importance of the classic Chinese novel, The Dream of the Red Mansion, in attracting visitors

2、 to Grand View Gardens in Beijing. That site was built as a replica of a Qing Dynasty palace for a popular television series. The study found that 52% of the 308 respondents stated that the novel was very or extremely important in attracting them to the gardens. The article seeks to go beyond this s

3、tatistic by examining how familiarity with the novel might help explain some of the statistical findings and concludes by arguing that if one is to obtain an understanding of the tourist experience of a place made popular by fiction, then it is also necessary to engage in cultural, media, and litera

4、ry studies as well as conversations and surveys of visitors. Hence, the text of the novel is itself part of the data set. Keywords: Chinese literature; tourism; constructions; culture; heritageThe purpose of this article is to examine to what extent familiarity with the television series and classic

5、 novel, The Dream of the Red Mansion, attracted visitors to Grand View Gardens in Beijing. Given the text taken above from the novel by Co Xueqin, the nature of the site, the novel, the film, and the different perceptions of visitors might be said to combine to fulfill Co Xueqins complex unfolding o

6、f illusion as reality, and reality as illusion. In addition, repeated visits by the authors were found to inform subsequent visits and the research project so that the authors became filters through which to better understand the place and peoples experience of it. Consequently, the study uses a mix

7、ed-methods research approach in which the data are (1) observation and sustained visitation during a period of more than 4 months, (2) the statistical data collected from respondents, (3) responses to open-ended questions, (4) conversations with visitors, and (5) knowledge of the novel. This last is

8、 important in that it quickly became evident that for many respondents the visit was motivated by the novel and its status within Chinese literature as “a masterpiece of realism written in the middle of the eighteenth century” (Yang and Yang 1979, p. 1289). The implication of this is that a sixth so

9、urce of data exists, which is the experience and knowledge of the authors of not only the site but also Chinese culture, including its Taoist and Buddhist underpinnings. Consequently, the discourse within this article is informed by not only an empiricist research tradition but also a subjective tra

10、dition of observation that Adler and Adler (1994, p. 389) maintain serves as “the most powerful form of validation.” By necessity, therefore, the authors have recourse not only to the meta-narratives implicit in the postpositivistic approach that seeks to generalize and predict from quantitative dat

11、a but also in the minutiae of observations of behaviors. They have adopted ideas derived from symbolic or interpretive interactionism and the “lived in experience” as proposed by Denzin (2001) and the stance of CAP ethnography that is, creative analytical practiceas espoused by Richardson (2000), by

12、 which research unfolds micro actions with unknown macro implications. However, problems relate to such non-post positivistic approaches premised on the view that “the truth” of a situation is structured within its social setting and that the researcher is also part of that structure. The authors re

13、cognize that the act of asking a question is not neutral. The question shapes the articulation of a response on the part of the respondent, and thus asking a question initiates a reply on the part of the respondent about something which the respondent may not actually have previously thought about.

14、For example, a visitor may visit an attraction unaware that it is associated with a novel or a film, but on being told of the linkage will now shape a response having had that linkage created in his or her mind. The question has changed the visitors experience! Simply collecting data that are formed

15、 solely by responses to a quantitatively based questionnaire does not include this aspect of the visitor experience. However, a challenge then exists for the researcher. While now the researcher has played a role in the construction of the experience, how does the researcher establish the credibilit

16、y of an interpretation in the reporting of the visitor experience to which they have contributed? In this instance the authors used text analysis software to help formulate the interpretation of at least part of the qualitative data.To summarize, the research question is to what extent associations

17、with film and literature attract people to the gardens, or are the gardens aesthetic attributes alone sufficient? Accordingly, the article is contextualized within different texts. First, there is that related to the novel itself. Second, there is that related to the academic literature on the relat

18、ionship between films and novels on one hand and tourism on the other. Third, there is that related to the modes of analysis adopted. This last includes some explanation of the software used to interpret the textual data. The article is also premised on a view that there is little written about the

19、relationship between literature and television on one hand and patterns of visitation to sites in China on the other. This article does not pretend to offer a definitive analysis of that situation but simply seeks to initiate a discussion by offering this case study.Consequently, the article is divi

20、ded into various sections. The first is a description of the novel and location of the research, thereby indicating why the gardens were selected as a site for this research. Second, there is a review of the literature pertaining to visitor motivation and reaction to sites based on popular media rep

21、resentations. Third, the results of the research are presented, before finally a discussion of the implications of the research completes the article.Grand View Gardens and The Dream of the Red Mansion The Dream of the Red Mansion is one of the classic pieces of Chinese literature, and thus the dest

22、ination has two facets to being a tourist attraction. First, it replicates the location of the story itself. Second, the destination was created, in Beijing, from 1984 to 1989 as a film location for a television series that, because of its historical antecedents as well as the epic style of the prod

23、uction, became very popular in China. However, unlike many Western film sets, the buildings not only sought to replicate the Qing Dynasty setting of the novel but also were built as permanent structures on a large scale. It covers 30 hectares (32.12 acres) and replicates in full size the palace, pav

24、ilions, and gardens of the period, as is illustrated in figures 1 and 2. It also appeals to tourists by being more than simply a replica of classical Chinese architecture by also maintaining a permanent exhibition of costumes and photographs of the film series and through hosting various events base

25、d on the story line, including “The Imperial Concubine Yuan Visits Home,” “A Grand View Garden Temple Fair,” and “The Grand View Garden Mid-Autumn Night.” In addition, as shown in figures 3 and 4, the gardens are used as a recreational resource by local people. In addition, visitors are offered an o

26、pportunity to be dressed in the clothes of the period, have photographs taken (figure 5), and be carried in a sedan chair. Visitors pay an entrance fee, but local people are able to buy an annual pass at a heavily discounted price, thereby permitting frequent access to the gardens. This is consisten

27、t with normal Chinese practice in Beijing as evidenced at other parks, for example Jingshang Park. Chinese parks are important social meeting places and are venues for dance, song, and games playing for their local communities. This study is of nonlocal visitors, but the local people are part of the

28、 experiential framework, and it can be argued that multiple gazes exist within the park where nonlocal visitors, especially non-Chinese, are themselves gazed on by the locals. For an analysis of this existence of multiple gazes, see Willemen (1995, p. 114) who notes, “Any articulation of images and

29、looks which brings into play the position and activity of the viewer . . . also destabilises that position . . . the viewer therefore runs the risk of becoming the object of the look.”The novel, written by Co Xueqin, was written in the middle of the eighteenth century and is thought to be, at least

30、in part, autobiographical (Hawkes 1973). Centered on two houses of the Jia Clan, it is an epic with more than 400 characters. Their stories are told over four volumes, 120 chapters, and 2,549 pages. On the face of it the story is about two great houses brought to ruin through a dictatorial whim, whi

31、le within the saga there lies a story of romance denied and decay and decline, as great as any found in Western literature. It is difficult to understate the importance of the novel. Minford (1986, p. 15) comments that “we witness death (sometimes brief and poignant, more often protracted and harrow

32、ing), ruin (nowhere in Chinese literature is there such a well inventoried chronicle of a familys confiscation).” Throughout the story is the life of the major protagonist, Jia Bao-yuthe stone. And herein lies the complexity of the story, for this is no mere telling of a familys fortune like John Ga

33、lsworthys Forsyte Saga, indicative though that novel is of the social mores of its time. The Dream of the Red Mansion is infused with Taoist and Buddhist thought and observation (Kao 1988). Hawkes (1973, p. 45) states that “Chinese devotees of the novel often continue to read and reread it throughout their lives and to discover more . . . each time