Actions for Understanding young Chinese backpackers : the pursuit of freedom and its risks

Email RIS file
Bookmark
Report an Issue

Understanding young Chinese backpackers : the pursuit of freedom and its risks / Xie Jia

Author
Jia, Xie
Published
Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2021.
Physical Description
1 online resource
Access Online

Availability

I Want It
I Want It

Finding items...

Series
Contents
Introduction -- Conceptualization -- Methodology -- Pursuing freedom: backpackers in the eyes of their contemporaries -- Be a backpacker, be independent -- Alternative seeker: backpacking as a way of life -- A new classification of the backpacker -- Understanding young Chinese backpackers: the pursuit of freedom and its risks.
Summary
"An activity that originated in western societies, backpacking has gained increasing popularity among Chinese millennials. In a spirit of the"search-for-self", young Chinese backpackers have sought to display their pursuit of freedom, independence, and responsibility within an increasingly individualized society through backpacking. This volume investigates contemporary young Chinese' views on backpacking culture and backpackers. A group of Chinese backpackers are studied using interview and participant observation, and focus groups are conducted to study young professionals and university students' attitudes towards backpacking. The results indicating a profound cultural change along with a degree of division. On the one hand, the backpackers often begin their journey due to a desire to pursue freedom, and use the pursuit as a process of reflexive awareness; on the other, the risks of carrying out a freewheeling lifestyle within an individualised society drive the majority of them to return home. The author concludes this phenomenon as a kind of "staged individualism", describing how Chinese millennials strike a balance between individual interests and wider social obligations. Students and scholars of sociology, tourism, and youth culture will be interested in this volume"--
Subject(s)
ISBN
9781003190172 (ebook)
1003190170
9781000410549 (electronic bk. : PDF)
1000410544 (electronic bk. : PDF)
9781000410570 (electronic bk. : EPUB)
1000410579 (electronic bk. : EPUB)
9781032039985 (hardback)
View MARC record | catkey: 37749159