Rural tourism and evolving identities of Chinese communities in forested areas

Abstract

Rural China has faced considerable challenges in recent decades, leading to the dissolution of many state-owned forest farm communities and threatening sustainable development. There remains a need to understand the drivers and characteristics associated with these changes, including the influence of rural tourism on combating forest recession. This study addresses these concerns by constructing and applying a regional sociology framework to investigate the link between tourism and the evolution of communities in rural forested areas. Focusing on forest farm communities in central China, recent findings indicate that tourism has complicated social relations, leading to a transformation of identity from a predominantly status-based, industrial, and cultural identity to a comprehensive regional identity. The study aims to enrich tourism and identity theory, providing theoretical and practical guidance for understanding and enhancing forest community development and sustainability through rural tourism in China and elsewhere.