During the Spring Festival holiday, my father was invited to teach a doctoral course on cultural heritage and rural tourism at Silpakorn University in Thailand. Curious about what doctoral classes entail, I decided to attend. After several days, I gained a new understanding of tourism and heritage, as well as how tourism development can benefit rural communities. This experience sparked my interest in the subject of tourism and prompted me to write and share my learning experience.
The first insight this course provided me with was the importance of understanding issues from different perspectives. The doctoral students, hailing from various Southeast Asian countries and possessing diverse professional backgrounds, seemed to have completely different views on the same issues—some of which were quite surprising to me. For example, when discussing rural cultural heritage, opinions varied: some emphasized the importance of cultural customs and traditions, others thought traditional techniques and arts were more crucial, while still others believed that traditional lifestyles or livelihoods were the core of rural cultural heritage. It was an eye-opener to see how differently people from various cultural and national backgrounds can view issues.
The second insight this course provided me with was the realization that we should not assume straightforward answers to many social issues. Discussing rural tourism, I initially took for granted that tourism would bring economic income and increase job opportunities for locals, considering it a very positive development. However, as the course progressed and students from different countries shared various case studies, I recognized that the reality might not necessarily align with this assumption. In some places, external capital controlled the entire development of rural tourism, leaving locals with little benefit, whereas in other places, the local community took control, organized their own management teams, and distributed profits among themselves, providing significant benefits to locals. Thus, whether rural tourism genuinely benefits the local community depends largely on who controls the profit distribution, rather than simply assuming that tourism development will automatically enhance local development. This taught me to observe social phenomena more deeply, realizing that the consequences of any measure are not black and white and require a comprehensive observation of all relevant variables.
Certainly, the most striking example for me was the rural tourism case of Yuanjiacun Village in Shaanxi, China. In a once-declining village near Xi’an, under the leadership of the elder village chief, they explored local traditional cuisine using local organic ingredients. The villagers united to form a business organization. Besides relying on legal frameworks and government regulations, they committed to food safety and product quality through traditional swearing oaths. They also encouraged mutual cooperation and oversight by investing in each other’s businesses. Under such a management model, Yuanjiacun Village became one of China’s hottest tourist destinations, drawing millions of visitors annually and setting a benchmark for Chinese rural tourism. From this case, I realized the significance of rural social elites and local cultural traditions in village development, and suddenly understood the importance of preserving rural traditional culture.
As a high school student, I had the fortunate opportunity to observe the entire process of this course as a bystander: attending lectures, participating in discussions, and going on field trips. Throughout this experience, I found that learning about and understanding the world could be such an interesting process. Seeing how people from different cultural and professional backgrounds interpret the same issue in vastly different and intriguing perspectives was enlightening. It made me realize that even for social phenomena that I often take for granted, a deeper observation might reveal entirely different insights.
- Article / Arienna
