Description
This study aims to evaluate the correlation of Chinese philosophy to the process of tourism
development. The current Chinese philosophy involves three influential ideologies: Chinese
Confucianism, Chinese communism and Western capitalism, which significantly affect people’s
perspectives, behaviors and importantly, the whole tourism system.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Chinese philosophy and tourism development: a case study of Hangzhou
Yi Wang
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Yi Wang, (2011),"Chinese philosophy and tourism development: a case study of Hangzhou", International J ournal of Culture, Tourism and
Hospitality Research, Vol. 5 Iss 1 pp. 92 - 100
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J ie Wen, (1998),"Evaluation of tourism and tourist resources in China: Existing methods and their limitations", International J ournal of Social
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Chinese philosophy and tourism
development: a case study of Hangzhou
Yi Wang
Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to evaluate the correlation of Chinese philosophy to the process of tourism
development. The current Chinese philosophy involves three in?uential ideologies: Chinese
Confucianism, Chinese communism and Western capitalism, which signi?cantly affect people’s
perspectives, behaviors and importantly, the whole tourism system.
Design/methodology/approach – This study conducted 47 semi-structured in-depth interviews
through ?eld visits, in order to understand people’s perspectives and social interactions in the tourism
development process. The case study is based on the Hubin Street Project of Hangzhou, China.
Findings – The study ?nds that all three ideologies in Chinese philosophy have strong in?uences in the
decision making processes of tourism development. They result in a relatively centralized
decision-making power centre, and increasing decentralized needs from the society.
Research limitations/implications – This research helps to understand the reasons for social actions
in China’s tourism development from a different perspective, the philosophy. The study gives
implications for other researches to further explore the relationship between ideologies and behavior.
Originality/value – The in?uences of Chinese philosophy to social actions could be even more
complicated. More case studies could re?ect different situations and more in-depth views.
Keywords China, Oriental philosophy, Tourism development, Social actions
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
This study considers that Chinese philosophy affects social behavior and activities. Thus,
understanding Chinese philosophy helps to examine the development of tourism industry in
China. As Fung (1953, p. 2) says, philosophy is also called ‘‘the method of conducting
study,’’ which means that philosophy indicates how people seek knowledge and
development. Philosophy, thus, expresses the human nature, ethics, principles, beliefs,
and the purposes in society (Flew, 1979).
The tourism industry involves stakeholders from multi-discipline sectors. Understanding
Chinese philosophy can help to explain different stakeholders’ perspectives, behaviors and
the decision-making processes in the tourism development. Stakeholder theory is always
applied in collaborative tourism planning (Hall and Jenkins, 1995; Jamal and Getz, 1995;
Medeiros de Araujo and Bramwell, 1999; Sautter and Leisen, 1999). Jamal and Getz (1995,
p. 188) contend that collaborative planning in a tourism context represents joint decision
making among diverse stakeholders in order to resolve planning problems and to manage
issues related to planning and development. Participation by multiple stakeholders with
differing interests and perspectives may encourage more consideration of the varied social,
cultural, environmental, economic and political issues affecting sustainable development
(Bramwell and Lane, 1993). Therefore, examining different stakeholders in tourism
development becomes more and more popular and crucial.
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Yi Wang is a Research
Fellow in Tourism at
Shef?eld Business School,
Shef?eld Hallam University,
Shef?eld, UK.
Received: September 2009
Revised: January 2010
Accepted: February 2010
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Chinese philosophy is hugely in?uenced by its long history and culture, political changes and
reforms, development of Chinese communism and socialism, and dramatic economic
development in recent years. All of these ‘‘external contexts’’ in?uence people’s social
interests, power relations and social actions that construct into a contemporary Chinese
philosophy nowadays. This study selects three representative elements from the external
contexts, namely, Confucianism, Westerncapitalism, andChinesecommunism, toexplainthe
transition and some general characteristics of Chinese philosophy. These ideologies help to
explainstakeholders’ social actionsanddecisionmakinginthetourismdevelopment process.
Hangzhou, thecapital cityof ZhejiangProvinceontheeast coast of China, isselectedasacase
study. Asawell-knowntourismcity, Hangzhouhascultural andhistorical signi?canceinChina.
Also, following China’s open-door policy, Hangzhou has developed very quickly in the
economy, andhasreceivedhugein?uencesfromChinesetraditionalismandwesternideology.
The study uses three recent tourismprojects in Hangzhou as an example, in order to illustrate
the signi?cance of current Chinese philosophy in social perspectives, actions and decision
making.
Literature review
The literature here reviews the differences between traditional Chinese philosophy and
western philosophy, and then examines the in?uences from Chinese traditional philosophy,
the western ideology, and the current Chinese communism.
The focuses of Chinese philosophy and western philosophy are radically different. The most
important difference between the two philosophies is about the prominence of epistemology
(Flew and Priest, 2002). Whilst western philosophy lays stress upon epistemology that
represents a system of knowledge, Chinese philosophy has not greatly emphasized pure
knowledge and lack of system (Liu, 2004). Thus, Chinese philosophy focuses more on the
internal, self-cultivation and ethics, while western philosophy is more external and puts
greater stress on logics and system. The differences between Chinese and western
philosophy indicate the different research focuses on them. The systematic methodology is
suitable for western philosophy, but not in Chinese society. The study of Chinese philosophy
requires not only a proper methodology, but also the understanding of the socio-cultural
environment and a Chinese ethical approach.
The earliest Chinese philosophy starts in the ?rst century AD with Yi-Jing, the Chinese
ontological hermeneutical tradition. Even Confucianism derives from Yi-Jing. ‘‘Ba-gua’’ and
‘‘Yin-Yang’’ are the two important icons for this philosophy. ‘‘Ba-gua’’ represents eight major
and dominant natural phenomena and processes which have been observed to be central to
our understanding of the natural reality (Mou, 2003, p. 40). ‘‘Yin’’ and ‘‘Yang’’ represent two
con?icting in?uences, such as shade and light, day and night, ?re and water (Mou, 2003,
p. 41). Both ‘‘Ba-gua’’ and ‘‘Yin-Yang’’ exemplify the ‘‘Doctrine of the middle way.’’ Together
they explain both extreme natural phenomena and people’s place in the world. The doctrine
teaches people to always act in balance: in the centre between ‘‘Yin’’ and ‘‘Yang’’. Not to
destroy the balance of ‘‘Ba-gua’’ and ‘‘Yin-Yang’’ is the core concept of this early philosophy
(Dong, 2001, p. 23). In Chinese society, such teaching in?uences people to act with great
caution so as not to unbalance situations and offend anybody else.
In China’s socio-cultural environment, the traditional philosophy of China is the most
in?uential ideology for Chinese people, even in the current society. Compared with the
ideologies of other non-western societies, Confucianism has received the most attention
fromwestern scholars (Pye, 1992, p. 31). Among all kinds of Chinese sages, Confucius is the
most in?uential and the creator of Confucianism, which has had thousands of years of
development in China and is deep-rooted in Chinese philosophy. ‘‘Graded love’’ and
‘‘Virtuous life’’ are two notions that represent the core concepts of Confucianism, which is
actually derived from the ‘‘Doctrine of middle way’’ (Dong, 2001, p. 137).
‘‘Graded love’’ is an example of a set of agent-relative obligations, which asserts that one
has greater ethical obligations and should have stronger concern for those who are bound to
one by special relationships, such as those between ruler and minister, father and son,
husband and wife, elder and younger brother and between friends (Mou, 2003, p. 104).
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Such special relationships nowadays develop into a powerful tool for Chinese people in
business and even in daily life, known as ‘‘Guanxi’’ (relationship). In Chinese society,
‘‘Guanxi’’ refers to a kind of personal connection between people that can help in prevailing
favor or service to another (Fan, 2002).
The notion of ‘‘graded love’’ relates closely with the other important notion of Confucianism,
the ‘‘virtuous life.’’ In Confucianism, the virtues are centered on the concept of ‘‘graded love;’’
anything following the doctrine of ‘‘graded love’’ is the true virtue. To support the concept of
‘‘graded love,’’ Confucius focuses on ‘‘charity,’’ ‘‘abiding faith,’’ ‘‘loyalty,’’ and ‘‘?lial piety’’ as
his concepts of virtues (Feng, 2005, p. 36). The main purpose of self-cultivation is not
necessarily theproper exerciseof freechoice, but rather theremoval of obstacles that prevent
the growth of the free mind (Mou, 2003, p. 131). This is the ethic that anyone in power can use
to their advantage. The moral control and fetters on the people are sometimes the most
powerful tools in politics. ‘‘Gradedlove’’ is also an ethic with a rigidstructure, andhas created
layer upon layer of bureaucrats, to whom subordinates bowed unquestioningly in a strict
order. Such ethic creates an enormous gulf between the people and the government.
In?uences from the western ideology to China are great, especially in those economic highly
grown cities. Owing to the ‘‘open door’’ policy in 1978, the south and east coast cities of
China were the earliest to allow international trading and business development. The
western ideology ?rst enters into these cities (including Hangzhou), bringing two major
in?uences into Chinese people’s social values: materialism and modernity. In philosophy,
materialismholds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; fundamentally, all
things are composed of material, and all phenomena are the results of material interactions
(Moser and Trout, 1995, p. 2). The materialism is considered as an important spirit of
capitalism in social development (Giddens, 1981). Some researchers critically label the
materialism as purely consumption-based orientation. Kasser (2003, p. 5) states that
materialism could be a high price to pay for the society because this makes people pursue
happiness via money and matters, whilst neglecting psychological adjustments and
feelings. Belk (1985) de?nes materialism as: the importance a consumer attaches to worldly
possessions. At highest levels of materialism, such possessions assume a central place in a
person’s life and are believed to provide the greatest sources of satisfaction and
dissatisfaction. The excessive focus on materialismcreates people’s envy, lack of generosity
and possessiveness. These traits of materialism are observable in China and everywhere
nowadays.
Western modernity is another major impact from capitalism. Modernity is also one of the
main results of economic development in China. However, the modernity in China is different
from modernity in western countries, where the extent of modernity is more mature, and
indicating with increased movement of goods, capital, people and information, formalization
of mobile elements, and standardization and specialization in the society. The key
consequence of Chinese modernity is ‘‘commercialism’’ (Oakes, 1998, p. 6). Take the
tourism industry in China as an example: with rapid development, excessive numbers of
theme parks emerge for attracting international tourists. The number of high standard hotels
and tourism facilities are increasing in order to meet the needs of developing tourism
everywhere. These commercialized developments are very popular, while the traditional
things are sometimes neglected. In addition, ‘‘Westernization’’ or ‘‘internationalization’’ is
another consequence of Chinese modernity.
Chinese communism has been considered as a political ideology, rather than a kind of
philosophy. Thousands of years of moral fetters ?nally ?nd some freedom from the
development of communism. Dreyer (2004) states that one reason why a number of Chinese
intellectuals ?nd communism appealing as a solution to their country’s problems is that it is
purported to be a scienti?c, culturally neutral process that would occur naturally in the
course of historical development. But, more importantly, this system also promises the
Chinese people equality, freedom, and absence of social class distinction.
Four generations of Chinese leaders are the founders and reformers of Chinese
communism. They are Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jian Zemin and Hu Jintao. Mao
Zedong, as the ?rst generation leader in China, was also the founder of Chinese communism
ideology. In Maoist era, politics was everything because Mao realized that politics can ?rm
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up the country’s independence and gain an important position in the world politics. The
second generation leader, Deng Xiaoping was a true reformer. By modernization Deng
primarily meant industrialization and attainment of higher living standards for the population
(Dreyer, 2004). His most famous policy was the ‘‘Open Door’’ policy in 1978, which intended
to import advanced scienti?c and technical equipment, encourage Chinese students to
acquire western knowledge or study abroad, and allowwestern industries and companies to
enter selected areas of China (starting from coastal cities in south of China). Allowing some
people to become rich ?rst and then helping the whole nation to become rich totally
overturns Mao’s philosophy. Deng’s policy establishes bridges between Chinese
traditionalism and western modernity. The third and fourth generation leaders are
followers of Deng’s policy, who extend the range of modernity in China. At the same time,
in order to maintain the dominant position of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the
traditional Chinese virtues are still promoted in the Chinese society to maintain the social
classes and people’s respect for authority.
Chinese communismacts as a bridge between the traditional Confucianismand the Western
capitalism. It allows the co-existence of both traditionalism and modernity, and adds on new
ideas from the Chinese communism. Therefore, traditional Confucianism, Western
capitalism and Chinese communism are the three most important ideologies in the current
Chinese philosophy.
Research methods
The case study uses the city of Hangzhou because the city is historically iconic with a lengthy
Chinese culture. Within the economically highly developed zone, the Yangzi Delta, Hangzhou
has an important relationship with the western world in relation to business and trade. As the
neighbor city to Shanghai, Hangzhou is also one of the key focuses for Chinese government in
order to support Shanghai’s further growth and recognition in the world. Therefore, Chinese
traditional Confucianism, Western capitalism and Chinese communism all have dramatic
in?uences in the city. It is interesting to examine how these three ideologies affect people’s
perspective, action and, most importantly, the decision-making processes.
During the period of April to July 2007, the study conducted 47 in-depth interviews in
Hangzhou, which includes 16 government of?cials, three tourism experts from university,
eight business people in the tourism sector, and 20 local community people. All the
interviews were semi-structured and lasted between one to one-and-a-half hours. The
interview questions focused on one recent tourismproject in Hangzhou: the NewHubin Area
Development, and reviewed different stakeholders’ perspectives on the project actions, their
social actions and how they reach their decisions in the project. The questions also
examined how the three Chinese philosophy elements affect their decision making.
Results and discussion
The new Hubin Area Development started in 2002 and ?nished in 2006 (Hangzhou Tourism
Committee, 2006). The project aimed to re-structure the Hubin area at the east shore of West
Lake, the most famous tourism resource in Hangzhou. The old Hubin was full of small and
mediumscale restaurants and shops, which caused a lot of pollution to the lake. Also the old
Hubin was the most popular shopping area for Hangzhou people as the area was full of
traditional shops and boutique shops.
However, many of them lack appropriate management and make the area unsightly and
chaotic. The Hangzhou government decided to re-structure the whole area in order to
improve the water quality in West Lake, improve the scenery along the lake, enhance the
business development in the area and, most importantly, grow the tourism industry
(Hangzhou Tourism Committee, 2006). Project objectives included ‘‘increasing green
spaces’’, ‘‘changing the street along the lake to be pedestrian only’’, ‘‘modifying the original
shopping street into a high-end branded shopping area’’, and ‘‘creating a new leisure and
entertainment area’’.
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New shopping street
When those old shops were removed from the Hubin area, the government decided to
establish a new shopping street to maintain the image of ‘‘Heaven of shopping’’ for Hubin.
The new street is located near to the West Lake, and is full of high-end international branded
stores, such as Prada, Gucci and Armani. All the buildings applied the same traditional
Chinese style. One tourism of?cial described them as ‘‘themed, balanced with surrounding
environment, and have aesthetic values’’. Symmetrical structure and singular design were
using for all the buildings in the street. As one tourism expert said:
Themed structure makes the street look nicer and tidier. The traditional style of those stores
matches with our cultural and historical heritage, the West Lake. In Chinese culture, themed, and
balanced stuff are always considered as good.
In Chinese philosophy, Confucius proposes ‘‘Theory of balance’’. He suggests that people
should keep their body, mind and behavior in balance (Tang, 2003). As mentioned before,
Confucianism comes from the original philosophy of ‘‘Doctrine of middle way’’, and always
teaches people to try to maintain their positions in between the two extreme ends. Such
philosophy in?uences people for a long time, which affects Chinese people’s aesthetic
standards to like things in balance and in good order. This is why all the interviewees
expressed their satisfaction about the new shopping street with themed building design.
Different from making the street single building design, the decision about attracting
high-end international branded shops has given rise to many comments. One of?cer from
the Environmental Protection Bureau objected that:
The international shops are totally not suitable for the West Lake surroundings, and also do not ?t
into the traditional buildings.
One of the community people added:
I don’t know the reasons of attracting big brands into the street. But it totally overturns the original
concept of Hubin, where was full of small local shops. The international branded stores of course
look very nice, but I don’t think they are appropriate to the area.
Despite some opposition and doubts about international branded stores, the key
decision-makers are very supportive of the idea. In this project, Hangzhou Tourism
Committee (HTC), West Lake Scenic District Management Committee (WLMC), and a few
tourism experts from local university are key decision-makers. As the interviews revealed,
attracting international branded shops has a lot of bene?ts. First, the international branded
shops tend to pay more rents than local shops. And as the government invested a lot in
building the street, the rents brought great advantage to the government in return. The
second generation Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, advocated the theory of ‘‘Socialism with
Chinese characteristics’’ in Chinese communism, which allowed parts of regions in China to
get rich ?rst (Wang, 2002). The most important step is the decentralization reforms in all
levels of the Chinese government. After the decentralization, Chinese governments at all
levels no longer rely solely on the ?scal arrangements from national central government
(Zhang et al., 1999). The government departments are responsible for their own pro?t and
loss, and are encouraged to earn their needs through all kinds of public-private cooperation
(Zhang, 2006). Therefore, making income is important to any government projects. Second,
the international branded stores are considered to be able to bring more international
tourists to Hangzhou. As one tourism expert said:
International branded stores can bring a lot of international tourists to the area. Also, for tourists
from other cities, these stores are important to attract them and especially shopping here. This
stimulates the local economy for Hangzhou. The more those stores earned, the more tax they
would give.
Tourism experts are very important in any tourism planning and policy-making in China, as
they provide consultancy to the government in the decision making. They are actively
involved in the decision-making processes because of their tourism expertise and their
respected status in Chinese society. As Confucius said of ‘‘Graded Love’’ and of ‘‘Virtuous
Life’’, people should respect scholars and their teachers, as this is essential to get a virtuous
life (Dong, 2001, p. 145). Therefore, tourism experts’ words sometimes could be very
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in?uential in government decisions, and also are in?uential in persuading other players. For
example, one community person said, ‘‘Although I have doubts, I think these international
shops might be good for Hangzhou as this decision was also supported by tourism experts
from university’’.
Although many people had doubts about the decision during the decision-making
processes, both HTCand WLMCwere strongly supportive of the decision. Also, the Mayor of
Hangzhou Municipal Government approved the decision. The interview ?nds that no one
complained about the decision, though many were not happy about it. One community
person explained, ‘‘Yes, we are not quite happy about the decision. But we never thought of
complaints. It is no use for us to complain about government decisions. Also I can’t see the
point. Anyway it is a governmental project’’.
Most of the community people expressed similar thoughts. They felt that it was unnecessary
for themto challenge the government’s decision. As Confucius taught in the ‘‘Graded Love’’,
people should not challenge their rulers as they have higher social status. This is also the
reason for creating the gap between the government and the community people.
West Lake ‘‘new heaven and earth leisure area’’
‘‘New heaven and earth leisure area’’ is a copy of the ‘‘New heaven and earth’’ in Shanghai,
which is a new recreational area with all the western pubs. ‘‘New heaven and earth’’ of
Shanghai is described as the ‘‘modern and westernized sign in newly developed Shanghai’’
(Li, 2009). With the same concept and objective, Hangzhou government decided to have a
leisure area by the West Lake. Considering environmental problems and for safety reasons,
the government decided to have international chain coffee shops and a few restaurants, to
replace using pubs. As one tourism of?cial from WLMC said, ‘‘Pubs will always cause safety
issues in the neighborhood, and serious pollution to the area. Also pubs are not suitable for
the image of the ‘West Lake’. As the leisure area is so close to the lake, we can not use pubs
as in Shanghai’’.
The government is very happy about the outcome, as the area has become the most popular
leisure area in a very short time. It generates a high amount of income and also is appraised
as the ‘‘modern pearl in the West Lake’’ by the national CCTV (Chinese central television)
program (CCTV, 2007). One national newspaper also indicates that the ‘‘New heaven and
earth leisure area’’ in Hangzhou represents the modernity of the city, and Hangzhou’s
internationalization progress (Chen, 2007). And this is just what the Hangzhou government
wants. The Deputy Dean of Hangzhou TourismCommittee said, ‘‘Our aimfor this leisure area
is to help the process of internationalization for Hangzhou . . . Now all the cities have to
perform on the international stage. Otherwise, the city will be eliminated by the rapid
economic development’’.
Not only the Hangzhou government, but also the community people and private sector
people are quite satis?ed with the results. Most of the community people said that they love
to go to this place for friends and family gathering, to have some fun. Some of them even
indicated that it is good to go to Starbucks and Costa for a cup of coffee and relax, especially
with the beautiful lake view surroundings.
Although the development is described as a commercialized and westernized model, it has
received very positive feedback so far from both local communities and tourists (He and
Wen, 2005). The in?uences of Westernization on tourism development are essential. The
planners would use the progress of internationalization and modernity to evaluate the
success of the tourism projects. Also the people enjoy the internationalized ambience in the
city and the western products.
Decision-making process in tourism development
The interview results also indicate the decision-making process in the Hubin Project in
Figure 1.
Hangzhou Tourism Committee (HTC) and West Lake Scenic District Management
Committee (WLMC) are the two tourism administrations in Hangzhou, which are in charge
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of drafting the tourism plans and policies, and managing tourism in the city. They always
consult tourism experts from universities, to work together for the best solutions. In the
meantime, both HTC and WLMC also receive some assistance from other government
departments. However, these government departments normally do not have any strong
power at the decision-making stage. The governmental projects involve more and more
private sector investors. In the process, the economic pro?ts are normally the focus of the
investors, rather than being more engaged with the governmental decision-making process.
Now that the HTC and WLMC have made the draft of the decision, it has to go through the
evaluator, the Legislative Of?ce. Normally, the Legislative Of?ce checks its validation and
evaluates whether the decision has any con?icting or overlapping contents with other
existing regulations. After that, the Mayor of Hangzhou Municipal Government needs to
authorize the approval. And, if the decision is related to a new tourism regulation, it has to go
through the congress system, which means that both Hangzhou Municipal Congress and
Zhejiang Provincial Congress give the ?nal approval.
Although the project outcomes indicate huge in?uences from Westernization, people’s
strong rooted philosophy of Confucianism, the decision-making process explains the strong
dominated position of Chinese communism in China. Chinese communism is about the
centralization of the status of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), whilst in the meantime
seeking decentralized economic development. As indicated in the case, although the
decision-making process involves various actors, the ?nal decision has to be approved by
the Mayor, or even needs to go through the Municipal Congress and the Provincial
Congress. Although the congress involves a lot of voted members from grass-rooted levels
(districts, towns and counties), the decision makers are only cadres within the Standing
Committee. China has direct election and indirect election. The direct election means that
the politicians are voted from ‘‘grass-rooted’’ levels, such as villages, towns, counties, and
districts within a city (Zhan, 2001). However, the indirect election controls the election of
those important politicians, such as Mayors of the city, heads of the government department,
etc. They are directly appointed by the upper-level governments and have to be active
participants in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (Zhan, 2001). Dittmer (2002) explained
that authority in China is often based on the political leverage inherent in one’s formal rank
and post in the Party, state and military hierarchies, and political in?uence which made up
Figure 1 Decision-making process in Hubin project
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the personal relationships that a political actor accumulates in the course of a career. Thus,
by such means, the CCP can still be in charge of the political movements.
The decision-making process indicates that the centralized position of the CCP in China is
stable. On the other hand, in order to increase the economic development, the centralized
political system has to adopt some decentralized changes. Thus, more and more private
sector actors are joining the process. In addition, economic growth becomes an important
objective for governmental projects.
Conclusion
The case study concludes with a few points about the in?uences of Chinese philosophy
on tourism development. First, Chinese communism determines the tourism regulations and
tourism political system. In other words, Chinese communism determines the direction of
tourism development. The centralized political system limits the ful decentralization of tourism
development. However, the government also keeps working towards decentralized
economic development, based on the Chinese communism economic reforms’
requirements. Thus, most of the government projects take economic growth as the
biggest objective.
Such an economic-strongly focused perspective is also in?uenced by Western capitalism.
Western capitalism increases people’s focus on commercialization, internationalization and
modernity. In tourism development, modernity even becomes the important criterion for
people to evaluate the success of the tourism projects.
Confucianism still has strong in?uences on people’s perspectives and behavior, and
therefore, affects their social actions in tourism development. Because of Confucianism,
people love a harmonized and balanced environment. People would try to avoid con?icts
with others, especially with the government, which represents the authority in the society.
This behavior explains why the community people do not entertain complaints or search for
greater involvement in the tourism development processes. They look for harmonized living
standards, with an economic income-generating objective. They also dare not challenge the
authority and the respectful scholars in the society because of the Confucianism ideology.
In conclusion, Confucianism, Western capitalism and Chinese communism all have strong
implications in Chinese people’s ideology, behavior and social actions. These implications
all can be found in the process of tourism development. This study helps to identify some
signi?cant reasons for social actions and social systemchanges in the tourismdevelopment.
The study gives indications for future studies in similar areas for social actor behavior in the
tourism systems.
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Corresponding author
Yi Wang can be contacted at: [email protected]
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doc_102742779.pdf
This study aims to evaluate the correlation of Chinese philosophy to the process of tourism
development. The current Chinese philosophy involves three influential ideologies: Chinese
Confucianism, Chinese communism and Western capitalism, which significantly affect people’s
perspectives, behaviors and importantly, the whole tourism system.
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research
Chinese philosophy and tourism development: a case study of Hangzhou
Yi Wang
Article information:
To cite this document:
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Hospitality Research, Vol. 5 Iss 1 pp. 92 - 100
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Chinese philosophy and tourism
development: a case study of Hangzhou
Yi Wang
Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to evaluate the correlation of Chinese philosophy to the process of tourism
development. The current Chinese philosophy involves three in?uential ideologies: Chinese
Confucianism, Chinese communism and Western capitalism, which signi?cantly affect people’s
perspectives, behaviors and importantly, the whole tourism system.
Design/methodology/approach – This study conducted 47 semi-structured in-depth interviews
through ?eld visits, in order to understand people’s perspectives and social interactions in the tourism
development process. The case study is based on the Hubin Street Project of Hangzhou, China.
Findings – The study ?nds that all three ideologies in Chinese philosophy have strong in?uences in the
decision making processes of tourism development. They result in a relatively centralized
decision-making power centre, and increasing decentralized needs from the society.
Research limitations/implications – This research helps to understand the reasons for social actions
in China’s tourism development from a different perspective, the philosophy. The study gives
implications for other researches to further explore the relationship between ideologies and behavior.
Originality/value – The in?uences of Chinese philosophy to social actions could be even more
complicated. More case studies could re?ect different situations and more in-depth views.
Keywords China, Oriental philosophy, Tourism development, Social actions
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
This study considers that Chinese philosophy affects social behavior and activities. Thus,
understanding Chinese philosophy helps to examine the development of tourism industry in
China. As Fung (1953, p. 2) says, philosophy is also called ‘‘the method of conducting
study,’’ which means that philosophy indicates how people seek knowledge and
development. Philosophy, thus, expresses the human nature, ethics, principles, beliefs,
and the purposes in society (Flew, 1979).
The tourism industry involves stakeholders from multi-discipline sectors. Understanding
Chinese philosophy can help to explain different stakeholders’ perspectives, behaviors and
the decision-making processes in the tourism development. Stakeholder theory is always
applied in collaborative tourism planning (Hall and Jenkins, 1995; Jamal and Getz, 1995;
Medeiros de Araujo and Bramwell, 1999; Sautter and Leisen, 1999). Jamal and Getz (1995,
p. 188) contend that collaborative planning in a tourism context represents joint decision
making among diverse stakeholders in order to resolve planning problems and to manage
issues related to planning and development. Participation by multiple stakeholders with
differing interests and perspectives may encourage more consideration of the varied social,
cultural, environmental, economic and political issues affecting sustainable development
(Bramwell and Lane, 1993). Therefore, examining different stakeholders in tourism
development becomes more and more popular and crucial.
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VOL. 5 NO. 1 2011, pp. 92-100, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1750-6182 DOI 10.1108/17506181111111799
Yi Wang is a Research
Fellow in Tourism at
Shef?eld Business School,
Shef?eld Hallam University,
Shef?eld, UK.
Received: September 2009
Revised: January 2010
Accepted: February 2010
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Chinese philosophy is hugely in?uenced by its long history and culture, political changes and
reforms, development of Chinese communism and socialism, and dramatic economic
development in recent years. All of these ‘‘external contexts’’ in?uence people’s social
interests, power relations and social actions that construct into a contemporary Chinese
philosophy nowadays. This study selects three representative elements from the external
contexts, namely, Confucianism, Westerncapitalism, andChinesecommunism, toexplainthe
transition and some general characteristics of Chinese philosophy. These ideologies help to
explainstakeholders’ social actionsanddecisionmakinginthetourismdevelopment process.
Hangzhou, thecapital cityof ZhejiangProvinceontheeast coast of China, isselectedasacase
study. Asawell-knowntourismcity, Hangzhouhascultural andhistorical signi?canceinChina.
Also, following China’s open-door policy, Hangzhou has developed very quickly in the
economy, andhasreceivedhugein?uencesfromChinesetraditionalismandwesternideology.
The study uses three recent tourismprojects in Hangzhou as an example, in order to illustrate
the signi?cance of current Chinese philosophy in social perspectives, actions and decision
making.
Literature review
The literature here reviews the differences between traditional Chinese philosophy and
western philosophy, and then examines the in?uences from Chinese traditional philosophy,
the western ideology, and the current Chinese communism.
The focuses of Chinese philosophy and western philosophy are radically different. The most
important difference between the two philosophies is about the prominence of epistemology
(Flew and Priest, 2002). Whilst western philosophy lays stress upon epistemology that
represents a system of knowledge, Chinese philosophy has not greatly emphasized pure
knowledge and lack of system (Liu, 2004). Thus, Chinese philosophy focuses more on the
internal, self-cultivation and ethics, while western philosophy is more external and puts
greater stress on logics and system. The differences between Chinese and western
philosophy indicate the different research focuses on them. The systematic methodology is
suitable for western philosophy, but not in Chinese society. The study of Chinese philosophy
requires not only a proper methodology, but also the understanding of the socio-cultural
environment and a Chinese ethical approach.
The earliest Chinese philosophy starts in the ?rst century AD with Yi-Jing, the Chinese
ontological hermeneutical tradition. Even Confucianism derives from Yi-Jing. ‘‘Ba-gua’’ and
‘‘Yin-Yang’’ are the two important icons for this philosophy. ‘‘Ba-gua’’ represents eight major
and dominant natural phenomena and processes which have been observed to be central to
our understanding of the natural reality (Mou, 2003, p. 40). ‘‘Yin’’ and ‘‘Yang’’ represent two
con?icting in?uences, such as shade and light, day and night, ?re and water (Mou, 2003,
p. 41). Both ‘‘Ba-gua’’ and ‘‘Yin-Yang’’ exemplify the ‘‘Doctrine of the middle way.’’ Together
they explain both extreme natural phenomena and people’s place in the world. The doctrine
teaches people to always act in balance: in the centre between ‘‘Yin’’ and ‘‘Yang’’. Not to
destroy the balance of ‘‘Ba-gua’’ and ‘‘Yin-Yang’’ is the core concept of this early philosophy
(Dong, 2001, p. 23). In Chinese society, such teaching in?uences people to act with great
caution so as not to unbalance situations and offend anybody else.
In China’s socio-cultural environment, the traditional philosophy of China is the most
in?uential ideology for Chinese people, even in the current society. Compared with the
ideologies of other non-western societies, Confucianism has received the most attention
fromwestern scholars (Pye, 1992, p. 31). Among all kinds of Chinese sages, Confucius is the
most in?uential and the creator of Confucianism, which has had thousands of years of
development in China and is deep-rooted in Chinese philosophy. ‘‘Graded love’’ and
‘‘Virtuous life’’ are two notions that represent the core concepts of Confucianism, which is
actually derived from the ‘‘Doctrine of middle way’’ (Dong, 2001, p. 137).
‘‘Graded love’’ is an example of a set of agent-relative obligations, which asserts that one
has greater ethical obligations and should have stronger concern for those who are bound to
one by special relationships, such as those between ruler and minister, father and son,
husband and wife, elder and younger brother and between friends (Mou, 2003, p. 104).
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Such special relationships nowadays develop into a powerful tool for Chinese people in
business and even in daily life, known as ‘‘Guanxi’’ (relationship). In Chinese society,
‘‘Guanxi’’ refers to a kind of personal connection between people that can help in prevailing
favor or service to another (Fan, 2002).
The notion of ‘‘graded love’’ relates closely with the other important notion of Confucianism,
the ‘‘virtuous life.’’ In Confucianism, the virtues are centered on the concept of ‘‘graded love;’’
anything following the doctrine of ‘‘graded love’’ is the true virtue. To support the concept of
‘‘graded love,’’ Confucius focuses on ‘‘charity,’’ ‘‘abiding faith,’’ ‘‘loyalty,’’ and ‘‘?lial piety’’ as
his concepts of virtues (Feng, 2005, p. 36). The main purpose of self-cultivation is not
necessarily theproper exerciseof freechoice, but rather theremoval of obstacles that prevent
the growth of the free mind (Mou, 2003, p. 131). This is the ethic that anyone in power can use
to their advantage. The moral control and fetters on the people are sometimes the most
powerful tools in politics. ‘‘Gradedlove’’ is also an ethic with a rigidstructure, andhas created
layer upon layer of bureaucrats, to whom subordinates bowed unquestioningly in a strict
order. Such ethic creates an enormous gulf between the people and the government.
In?uences from the western ideology to China are great, especially in those economic highly
grown cities. Owing to the ‘‘open door’’ policy in 1978, the south and east coast cities of
China were the earliest to allow international trading and business development. The
western ideology ?rst enters into these cities (including Hangzhou), bringing two major
in?uences into Chinese people’s social values: materialism and modernity. In philosophy,
materialismholds that the only thing that can truly be said to exist is matter; fundamentally, all
things are composed of material, and all phenomena are the results of material interactions
(Moser and Trout, 1995, p. 2). The materialism is considered as an important spirit of
capitalism in social development (Giddens, 1981). Some researchers critically label the
materialism as purely consumption-based orientation. Kasser (2003, p. 5) states that
materialism could be a high price to pay for the society because this makes people pursue
happiness via money and matters, whilst neglecting psychological adjustments and
feelings. Belk (1985) de?nes materialism as: the importance a consumer attaches to worldly
possessions. At highest levels of materialism, such possessions assume a central place in a
person’s life and are believed to provide the greatest sources of satisfaction and
dissatisfaction. The excessive focus on materialismcreates people’s envy, lack of generosity
and possessiveness. These traits of materialism are observable in China and everywhere
nowadays.
Western modernity is another major impact from capitalism. Modernity is also one of the
main results of economic development in China. However, the modernity in China is different
from modernity in western countries, where the extent of modernity is more mature, and
indicating with increased movement of goods, capital, people and information, formalization
of mobile elements, and standardization and specialization in the society. The key
consequence of Chinese modernity is ‘‘commercialism’’ (Oakes, 1998, p. 6). Take the
tourism industry in China as an example: with rapid development, excessive numbers of
theme parks emerge for attracting international tourists. The number of high standard hotels
and tourism facilities are increasing in order to meet the needs of developing tourism
everywhere. These commercialized developments are very popular, while the traditional
things are sometimes neglected. In addition, ‘‘Westernization’’ or ‘‘internationalization’’ is
another consequence of Chinese modernity.
Chinese communism has been considered as a political ideology, rather than a kind of
philosophy. Thousands of years of moral fetters ?nally ?nd some freedom from the
development of communism. Dreyer (2004) states that one reason why a number of Chinese
intellectuals ?nd communism appealing as a solution to their country’s problems is that it is
purported to be a scienti?c, culturally neutral process that would occur naturally in the
course of historical development. But, more importantly, this system also promises the
Chinese people equality, freedom, and absence of social class distinction.
Four generations of Chinese leaders are the founders and reformers of Chinese
communism. They are Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jian Zemin and Hu Jintao. Mao
Zedong, as the ?rst generation leader in China, was also the founder of Chinese communism
ideology. In Maoist era, politics was everything because Mao realized that politics can ?rm
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up the country’s independence and gain an important position in the world politics. The
second generation leader, Deng Xiaoping was a true reformer. By modernization Deng
primarily meant industrialization and attainment of higher living standards for the population
(Dreyer, 2004). His most famous policy was the ‘‘Open Door’’ policy in 1978, which intended
to import advanced scienti?c and technical equipment, encourage Chinese students to
acquire western knowledge or study abroad, and allowwestern industries and companies to
enter selected areas of China (starting from coastal cities in south of China). Allowing some
people to become rich ?rst and then helping the whole nation to become rich totally
overturns Mao’s philosophy. Deng’s policy establishes bridges between Chinese
traditionalism and western modernity. The third and fourth generation leaders are
followers of Deng’s policy, who extend the range of modernity in China. At the same time,
in order to maintain the dominant position of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the
traditional Chinese virtues are still promoted in the Chinese society to maintain the social
classes and people’s respect for authority.
Chinese communismacts as a bridge between the traditional Confucianismand the Western
capitalism. It allows the co-existence of both traditionalism and modernity, and adds on new
ideas from the Chinese communism. Therefore, traditional Confucianism, Western
capitalism and Chinese communism are the three most important ideologies in the current
Chinese philosophy.
Research methods
The case study uses the city of Hangzhou because the city is historically iconic with a lengthy
Chinese culture. Within the economically highly developed zone, the Yangzi Delta, Hangzhou
has an important relationship with the western world in relation to business and trade. As the
neighbor city to Shanghai, Hangzhou is also one of the key focuses for Chinese government in
order to support Shanghai’s further growth and recognition in the world. Therefore, Chinese
traditional Confucianism, Western capitalism and Chinese communism all have dramatic
in?uences in the city. It is interesting to examine how these three ideologies affect people’s
perspective, action and, most importantly, the decision-making processes.
During the period of April to July 2007, the study conducted 47 in-depth interviews in
Hangzhou, which includes 16 government of?cials, three tourism experts from university,
eight business people in the tourism sector, and 20 local community people. All the
interviews were semi-structured and lasted between one to one-and-a-half hours. The
interview questions focused on one recent tourismproject in Hangzhou: the NewHubin Area
Development, and reviewed different stakeholders’ perspectives on the project actions, their
social actions and how they reach their decisions in the project. The questions also
examined how the three Chinese philosophy elements affect their decision making.
Results and discussion
The new Hubin Area Development started in 2002 and ?nished in 2006 (Hangzhou Tourism
Committee, 2006). The project aimed to re-structure the Hubin area at the east shore of West
Lake, the most famous tourism resource in Hangzhou. The old Hubin was full of small and
mediumscale restaurants and shops, which caused a lot of pollution to the lake. Also the old
Hubin was the most popular shopping area for Hangzhou people as the area was full of
traditional shops and boutique shops.
However, many of them lack appropriate management and make the area unsightly and
chaotic. The Hangzhou government decided to re-structure the whole area in order to
improve the water quality in West Lake, improve the scenery along the lake, enhance the
business development in the area and, most importantly, grow the tourism industry
(Hangzhou Tourism Committee, 2006). Project objectives included ‘‘increasing green
spaces’’, ‘‘changing the street along the lake to be pedestrian only’’, ‘‘modifying the original
shopping street into a high-end branded shopping area’’, and ‘‘creating a new leisure and
entertainment area’’.
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New shopping street
When those old shops were removed from the Hubin area, the government decided to
establish a new shopping street to maintain the image of ‘‘Heaven of shopping’’ for Hubin.
The new street is located near to the West Lake, and is full of high-end international branded
stores, such as Prada, Gucci and Armani. All the buildings applied the same traditional
Chinese style. One tourism of?cial described them as ‘‘themed, balanced with surrounding
environment, and have aesthetic values’’. Symmetrical structure and singular design were
using for all the buildings in the street. As one tourism expert said:
Themed structure makes the street look nicer and tidier. The traditional style of those stores
matches with our cultural and historical heritage, the West Lake. In Chinese culture, themed, and
balanced stuff are always considered as good.
In Chinese philosophy, Confucius proposes ‘‘Theory of balance’’. He suggests that people
should keep their body, mind and behavior in balance (Tang, 2003). As mentioned before,
Confucianism comes from the original philosophy of ‘‘Doctrine of middle way’’, and always
teaches people to try to maintain their positions in between the two extreme ends. Such
philosophy in?uences people for a long time, which affects Chinese people’s aesthetic
standards to like things in balance and in good order. This is why all the interviewees
expressed their satisfaction about the new shopping street with themed building design.
Different from making the street single building design, the decision about attracting
high-end international branded shops has given rise to many comments. One of?cer from
the Environmental Protection Bureau objected that:
The international shops are totally not suitable for the West Lake surroundings, and also do not ?t
into the traditional buildings.
One of the community people added:
I don’t know the reasons of attracting big brands into the street. But it totally overturns the original
concept of Hubin, where was full of small local shops. The international branded stores of course
look very nice, but I don’t think they are appropriate to the area.
Despite some opposition and doubts about international branded stores, the key
decision-makers are very supportive of the idea. In this project, Hangzhou Tourism
Committee (HTC), West Lake Scenic District Management Committee (WLMC), and a few
tourism experts from local university are key decision-makers. As the interviews revealed,
attracting international branded shops has a lot of bene?ts. First, the international branded
shops tend to pay more rents than local shops. And as the government invested a lot in
building the street, the rents brought great advantage to the government in return. The
second generation Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping, advocated the theory of ‘‘Socialism with
Chinese characteristics’’ in Chinese communism, which allowed parts of regions in China to
get rich ?rst (Wang, 2002). The most important step is the decentralization reforms in all
levels of the Chinese government. After the decentralization, Chinese governments at all
levels no longer rely solely on the ?scal arrangements from national central government
(Zhang et al., 1999). The government departments are responsible for their own pro?t and
loss, and are encouraged to earn their needs through all kinds of public-private cooperation
(Zhang, 2006). Therefore, making income is important to any government projects. Second,
the international branded stores are considered to be able to bring more international
tourists to Hangzhou. As one tourism expert said:
International branded stores can bring a lot of international tourists to the area. Also, for tourists
from other cities, these stores are important to attract them and especially shopping here. This
stimulates the local economy for Hangzhou. The more those stores earned, the more tax they
would give.
Tourism experts are very important in any tourism planning and policy-making in China, as
they provide consultancy to the government in the decision making. They are actively
involved in the decision-making processes because of their tourism expertise and their
respected status in Chinese society. As Confucius said of ‘‘Graded Love’’ and of ‘‘Virtuous
Life’’, people should respect scholars and their teachers, as this is essential to get a virtuous
life (Dong, 2001, p. 145). Therefore, tourism experts’ words sometimes could be very
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in?uential in government decisions, and also are in?uential in persuading other players. For
example, one community person said, ‘‘Although I have doubts, I think these international
shops might be good for Hangzhou as this decision was also supported by tourism experts
from university’’.
Although many people had doubts about the decision during the decision-making
processes, both HTCand WLMCwere strongly supportive of the decision. Also, the Mayor of
Hangzhou Municipal Government approved the decision. The interview ?nds that no one
complained about the decision, though many were not happy about it. One community
person explained, ‘‘Yes, we are not quite happy about the decision. But we never thought of
complaints. It is no use for us to complain about government decisions. Also I can’t see the
point. Anyway it is a governmental project’’.
Most of the community people expressed similar thoughts. They felt that it was unnecessary
for themto challenge the government’s decision. As Confucius taught in the ‘‘Graded Love’’,
people should not challenge their rulers as they have higher social status. This is also the
reason for creating the gap between the government and the community people.
West Lake ‘‘new heaven and earth leisure area’’
‘‘New heaven and earth leisure area’’ is a copy of the ‘‘New heaven and earth’’ in Shanghai,
which is a new recreational area with all the western pubs. ‘‘New heaven and earth’’ of
Shanghai is described as the ‘‘modern and westernized sign in newly developed Shanghai’’
(Li, 2009). With the same concept and objective, Hangzhou government decided to have a
leisure area by the West Lake. Considering environmental problems and for safety reasons,
the government decided to have international chain coffee shops and a few restaurants, to
replace using pubs. As one tourism of?cial from WLMC said, ‘‘Pubs will always cause safety
issues in the neighborhood, and serious pollution to the area. Also pubs are not suitable for
the image of the ‘West Lake’. As the leisure area is so close to the lake, we can not use pubs
as in Shanghai’’.
The government is very happy about the outcome, as the area has become the most popular
leisure area in a very short time. It generates a high amount of income and also is appraised
as the ‘‘modern pearl in the West Lake’’ by the national CCTV (Chinese central television)
program (CCTV, 2007). One national newspaper also indicates that the ‘‘New heaven and
earth leisure area’’ in Hangzhou represents the modernity of the city, and Hangzhou’s
internationalization progress (Chen, 2007). And this is just what the Hangzhou government
wants. The Deputy Dean of Hangzhou TourismCommittee said, ‘‘Our aimfor this leisure area
is to help the process of internationalization for Hangzhou . . . Now all the cities have to
perform on the international stage. Otherwise, the city will be eliminated by the rapid
economic development’’.
Not only the Hangzhou government, but also the community people and private sector
people are quite satis?ed with the results. Most of the community people said that they love
to go to this place for friends and family gathering, to have some fun. Some of them even
indicated that it is good to go to Starbucks and Costa for a cup of coffee and relax, especially
with the beautiful lake view surroundings.
Although the development is described as a commercialized and westernized model, it has
received very positive feedback so far from both local communities and tourists (He and
Wen, 2005). The in?uences of Westernization on tourism development are essential. The
planners would use the progress of internationalization and modernity to evaluate the
success of the tourism projects. Also the people enjoy the internationalized ambience in the
city and the western products.
Decision-making process in tourism development
The interview results also indicate the decision-making process in the Hubin Project in
Figure 1.
Hangzhou Tourism Committee (HTC) and West Lake Scenic District Management
Committee (WLMC) are the two tourism administrations in Hangzhou, which are in charge
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of drafting the tourism plans and policies, and managing tourism in the city. They always
consult tourism experts from universities, to work together for the best solutions. In the
meantime, both HTC and WLMC also receive some assistance from other government
departments. However, these government departments normally do not have any strong
power at the decision-making stage. The governmental projects involve more and more
private sector investors. In the process, the economic pro?ts are normally the focus of the
investors, rather than being more engaged with the governmental decision-making process.
Now that the HTC and WLMC have made the draft of the decision, it has to go through the
evaluator, the Legislative Of?ce. Normally, the Legislative Of?ce checks its validation and
evaluates whether the decision has any con?icting or overlapping contents with other
existing regulations. After that, the Mayor of Hangzhou Municipal Government needs to
authorize the approval. And, if the decision is related to a new tourism regulation, it has to go
through the congress system, which means that both Hangzhou Municipal Congress and
Zhejiang Provincial Congress give the ?nal approval.
Although the project outcomes indicate huge in?uences from Westernization, people’s
strong rooted philosophy of Confucianism, the decision-making process explains the strong
dominated position of Chinese communism in China. Chinese communism is about the
centralization of the status of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), whilst in the meantime
seeking decentralized economic development. As indicated in the case, although the
decision-making process involves various actors, the ?nal decision has to be approved by
the Mayor, or even needs to go through the Municipal Congress and the Provincial
Congress. Although the congress involves a lot of voted members from grass-rooted levels
(districts, towns and counties), the decision makers are only cadres within the Standing
Committee. China has direct election and indirect election. The direct election means that
the politicians are voted from ‘‘grass-rooted’’ levels, such as villages, towns, counties, and
districts within a city (Zhan, 2001). However, the indirect election controls the election of
those important politicians, such as Mayors of the city, heads of the government department,
etc. They are directly appointed by the upper-level governments and have to be active
participants in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (Zhan, 2001). Dittmer (2002) explained
that authority in China is often based on the political leverage inherent in one’s formal rank
and post in the Party, state and military hierarchies, and political in?uence which made up
Figure 1 Decision-making process in Hubin project
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the personal relationships that a political actor accumulates in the course of a career. Thus,
by such means, the CCP can still be in charge of the political movements.
The decision-making process indicates that the centralized position of the CCP in China is
stable. On the other hand, in order to increase the economic development, the centralized
political system has to adopt some decentralized changes. Thus, more and more private
sector actors are joining the process. In addition, economic growth becomes an important
objective for governmental projects.
Conclusion
The case study concludes with a few points about the in?uences of Chinese philosophy
on tourism development. First, Chinese communism determines the tourism regulations and
tourism political system. In other words, Chinese communism determines the direction of
tourism development. The centralized political system limits the ful decentralization of tourism
development. However, the government also keeps working towards decentralized
economic development, based on the Chinese communism economic reforms’
requirements. Thus, most of the government projects take economic growth as the
biggest objective.
Such an economic-strongly focused perspective is also in?uenced by Western capitalism.
Western capitalism increases people’s focus on commercialization, internationalization and
modernity. In tourism development, modernity even becomes the important criterion for
people to evaluate the success of the tourism projects.
Confucianism still has strong in?uences on people’s perspectives and behavior, and
therefore, affects their social actions in tourism development. Because of Confucianism,
people love a harmonized and balanced environment. People would try to avoid con?icts
with others, especially with the government, which represents the authority in the society.
This behavior explains why the community people do not entertain complaints or search for
greater involvement in the tourism development processes. They look for harmonized living
standards, with an economic income-generating objective. They also dare not challenge the
authority and the respectful scholars in the society because of the Confucianism ideology.
In conclusion, Confucianism, Western capitalism and Chinese communism all have strong
implications in Chinese people’s ideology, behavior and social actions. These implications
all can be found in the process of tourism development. This study helps to identify some
signi?cant reasons for social actions and social systemchanges in the tourismdevelopment.
The study gives indications for future studies in similar areas for social actor behavior in the
tourism systems.
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