Syncretism and indigenous cultural tourism in Taiwan

Abstract

Residents in Indigenous Paiwan and Rukai communities in South Taiwan struggle over control of cultural resources for tourism. A history of Sinicization, government control and religious-colonial syncretism have divided subjectivities toward the public discourse on identity and the management of cultural tourism products. Through Q method, this study explores that discourse to identify operant subjectivities at work in the Indigenous community. A majority view favoring religion as the key stakeholder in cultural tourism was found with an opposing view preferring the voice of an original culture and third syncretic viewpoint. The implications are that planners in direct-dependence based cultural tourism economies should consider stakeholder conflict as a matter of operant subjectivity rather than simply a difference in occupational identity.