Abstract
Rural commodification with rural transformation development is a potential research agenda for rural geography. Based on semi-structured interviews in five times fieldwork in Xixinan Village, Huangshan, China, this article examines how the township government as an actor with entrepreneurialism promotes the commodification of place in rural areas and its impact on rural transformation development. It was found that the township government has drawn economic returns from different subjects of tourism entrepreneurs, tourists, and lifestyle immigrants by the efforts of commodifying real estate, creative tourism experience, and nature. Rural transformation development is accompanied by rural commodification, showing rural gentrification, expansion of employment opportunities for women, and the readjustment of the social structure of the family in the demographic structure. Rural tourism and rural creative industries have developed, complementing the single agricultural structure, constituting a mutual intersection and integration among these three industries. Regarding social and cultural values, rural commodification promoted the awareness of place in protecting ancient buildings and indigenous culture, but it also brought a sense of deprivation for community and contested rurality among different groups. The development state of rural transformation is constantly changing, and the new challenges arising from it to the rural revitalization of China, in this case, are also identified. The contribution of this article is to expand the analytical dimension of the commodification of place in rural areas and examine the state entrepreneurism associated with it. It also contributes to improving the understanding of the current development state of rural transformation in China.
Highlights
The process and problems of rural development in the world vary from country to country, it is a common trend to reverse the decline of rural areas and stimulate the vitality of rural development in the process of urbanization when implementing rural revitalization strategies [1]
In China, rural tourism is regarded as a significant channel for promoting rural revitalization, as Wu illustrates, using the market instruments and means to achieve the state’s strategic goals [3,4], which further overall promotes the rural transformation from productivism to post-productivism [5,6]
A few scholars have linked countryside used for tourism, leisure, recreation, and residence to the broader China’s political and economic process, which indicate the relationship among rural tourism, urban-rural interaction, capital flow, and spatial fix [5,15,16], the role of township governments in the commodification of place in rural areas is still underestimated
Summary
The process and problems of rural development in the world vary from country to country, it is a common trend to reverse the decline of rural areas and stimulate the vitality of rural development in the process of urbanization when implementing rural revitalization strategies [1]. A few scholars have linked countryside used for tourism, leisure, recreation, and residence to the broader China’s political and economic process, which indicate the relationship among rural tourism, urban-rural interaction, capital flow, and spatial fix [5,15,16], the role of township governments in the commodification of place in rural areas is still underestimated. This article aims to address this gap by examining how the township government as an actor with entrepreneurialism promotes the tourism-led commodification of place in rural areas and its impact on rural transformation development. Village has rich historical and cultural relics of the Huizhou region and a high-quality natural and ecological environment In recent years, it has gradually transformed from agriculture society to tourism and related creative industries, which provides a good lens for analyzing China’s rural transformation development driven by tourism. We conclude by reinforcing the calls to combine the dimension of nature to examine the commodification of place and the critical application of state entrepreneurism in rural areas
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