{"id":6085,"date":"2020-08-03T15:30:56","date_gmt":"2020-08-03T07:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www2.ift.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/?p=6085"},"modified":"2020-08-03T15:32:13","modified_gmt":"2020-08-03T07:32:13","slug":"building-identity-via-the-international-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/building-identity-via-the-international-parade\/","title":{"rendered":"Building identity via the International Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"\u4e2d\u6587\u6458\u8981 \/ Summary in Chinese<\/span>\n

Macao International Parade appears to be a \u201csuccessful case\u201d \u2013 in a \u201cpostcolonial destination\u201d context \u2013 of an event that is able to enhance identification among locals with national identity. So says a research paper involving an alumna and a scholar from IFTM.<\/p>\n

The parade has been able to achieve this by making use of \u201can entertaining celebration\u201d that is only \u201csoftly associated\u201d with the handover to Chinese administration from that of Portugal and with Chinese national identity, say the researchers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOrganising a cultural festival to celebrate the city\u2019s uniqueness and newly-acquired identity may be a better means\u201d to achieve identity-formation than by directly imprinting \u201cmultiple Chinese political symbols\u201d on locals, wrote the authors of the research. \u201cThis soft process, more reliant on the social and cultural aspects,\u201d than other forms of identity-building, has \u201cproved to be useful to generate positive emotions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments were featured in the paper \u201cNational identity and cultural festivals in postcolonial destinations\u201d, produced by 4 international researchers, including IFTM alumna Dr. Carol Xiaoyue Zhang \u2013 now a scholar at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom \u2013 and IFTM scholar Dr. Tuan Phong Ly (Jack). The other authors were Dr. Lawrence Hoc Nang Fong from the University of Macau, and Dr. Shina Li from Sun Yat-sen University, in Mainland China. The work was published last year in the academic journal Tourism Management.<\/p>\n

This was not the first academic paper on postcolonial identity to bring together Dr. Zhang and Dr. Ly. Previously they jointly wrote \u2013 along with 2 other scholars \u2013 the paper \u201cPolitics of memories: Identity construction in museums\u201d, published in 2018 in the Annals of Tourism Research. It analysed commentaries available at the Hong Kong Museum of History and Macao Museum respectively, used to describe exhibits to local and international visitors.<\/p>\n

Macao was hired and administered by Portugal for centuries, until 1999, when it was returned to Chinese control, becoming a Special Administrative Region of China.<\/p>\n

Hybrid identity<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the \u201cNational identity and cultural festivals in postcolonial destinations\u201d paper, the authors pointed out that Macao\u2019s \u201chybrid identity\u201d \u2013 often described as \u2018East meets West\u2019 \u2013 revealed that the city\u2019s identity had \u201cnot yet become purely Chinese.\u201d The Macao International Parade \u201csymbolises a softer process to legitimate the Chinese national identity,\u201d associating the handover with \u201cthe celebratory atmosphere of a festival to generate positive emotions and inform identity,\u201d said the researchers.<\/p>\n

The annual Macao International Parade \u2013 known until 2016 as \u201cParade through Macao, Latin City\u201d \u2013 has been held annually by the city\u2019s Cultural Affairs Bureau since 2011. The parade features performing groups from around the world and local artists. Its route includes places that are part of the UNESCO-listed Historic Centre of Macao. The event attracts thousands each year.<\/p>\n

According to the researchers, the parade has \u201ca clear political agenda to celebrate Macao\u2019s handover and bring the community together.\u201d While festivals elsewhere \u201chave often utilised their own cultural heritage symbols to reinforce significant historical events, this festival seems to reuse [Macao\u2019s] Portuguese legacy to celebrate its newly acquired Chinese identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

They added that \u201cdownplaying\u201d the \u201ccolonial legacy\u201d of Macao through \u201ctransferring the colonial cultural [heritage] to a multi-culture\u201d event, further helped the Macao International Parade\u2019s national identity-forming function.<\/p>\n

The authors used a mixture of methods for their research. There was a qualitative study to investigate the rationale for organising festivals to celebrate postcolonial hybrid identities, taking as an example the Macao International Parade. There was also a quantitative study using a survey \u2013 collecting a total of 255 valid responses from parade-goers \u2013 to investigate the socio-political role that festivals play in postcolonial destinations.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a new postcolonial destination, such as Macao, the historical event that changed its identity from a colony to a Special Administrative Region of China is magnificent,\u201d said the researchers. \u201cEncouraging positive emotions towards the handover\u201d \u2013 via the parade \u2013 \u201cshould eventually legitimate Macao\u2019s newly-acquired Chinese national identity,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

The researchers indicated that similar situations were \u201cwidely visible\u201d in other postcolonial destinations with hybrid identities. In such places, the organisation of cultural festivals and events also went through \u201ca process similar to Macao, where identities are negotiated to demonstrate local uniqueness and international position.\u201d<\/p>\n

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More info<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The researchers<\/div>\nDr. Carol Xueyue Zhang is an Assistant Professor of Tourism Marketing and Management at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. She has a PhD from the University of Surrey, also in the U.K. Dr. Zhang began her higher education studies at IFTM, graduating in 2010 with a bachelor\u2019s degree in Tourism Business Management. Her research interests include identity, tourist behaviour and destination marketing.<\/p>\n

University of Macau Associate Professor Dr. Lawrence Hoc Nang Fong holds a PhD in hotel and tourism management from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research areas include tourist behaviour, the impact of casinos on communities, and the effects of online reviews.<\/p>\n

Dr. Shina Li is a Professor at the School of Tourism Management at Sun Yat-sen University, in Mainland China. She has a background in tourism economics and her research interests cover tourism and event-impact evaluation. Dr. Li has a PhD from the University of Nottingham in the U.K.<\/p>\n

Dr. Tuan Phong Ly (Jack) is a Visiting Assistant Professor at IFTM. He holds a PhD from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests include ecotourism, national park model management, cultural heritage management, tourism development in Southeast Asia, and museum development. He teaches tourism management and culture-related subjects at IFTM.
\n<\/div>\n

The paper<\/div>\n– The paper
\nCarol Xiaoyue Zhang, Lawrence Hoc Nang Fong, ShiNa Li and Tuan Phong Ly: \u201cNational identity and cultural festivals in postcolonial destinations\u201d, Tourism Management, Volume 73, pages 94-104, 2019.
\nhttps:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.tourman.2019.01.013<\/a>
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macao International Parade appears to be a \u201csuccessful case\u201d \u2013 in a \u201cpostcolonial destination\u201d context \u2013 of an event that is able to enhance identification among locals with national identity. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,136],"tags":[1275,1449,905,1450,147],"class_list":["post-6085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-knowledge","category-main_headline","tag-carol-zhang","tag-international-parade","tag-national-identity","tag-postcolonial-destination","tag-tuan-phong-ly"],"views":1369,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6085"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6090,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6085\/revisions\/6090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.utm.edu.mo\/NewsPortal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}