Page 80 - JCAU-7-3

Journal of Chinese

Architecture and Urbanism

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
“Saving” Lizhuang: Local preservation and

resistance in a historical Sichuan town under
tourism development

Ya Shu*

Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
SAR, China
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Regenerating Views, Values, and Visions in Countryside
Conservation in Chinese Societies)

Abstract

In recent years, the relationship between tourism and locality has garnered significant
scholarly attention; however, few studies have analyzed a single tourist destination
by integrating multiple locality-related concepts. This article examines the historical
town of Lizhuang, Sichuan, China, as a case study, employing a research methodology
that combines in-depth interviews and virtual ethnography. The concepts of “locality,”
“placelessness,” and “relocalization” are utilized to elucidate how Lizhuang retains its
sense of locality amid tourism development. In addition, the current study analyzes
*Corresponding author: the strategies implemented in Lizhuang to preserve its locality and counteract the
Ya Shu forces of placelessness and relocalization resulting from tourism expansion. The
(yashu@link.cuhk.edu.hk)
findings indicate that capital authority, local culture excavation, and the role of
Citation: Shu, Y. (2025). “Saving” daily life form a three-pronged structure shaping Lizhuang’s locality in the context
Lizhuang: Local preservation and
resistance in a historical Sichuan of tourism. Furthermore, architectural homogenization, inauthentic attitudes, mass
town under tourism development. media influences, and the role of community education and atmosphere are identified
Journal of Chinese Architecture and as key factors contributing to placelessness in Lizhuang. Finally, the study discusses
Urbanism, 7(3): 4876.
https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.4876 the current relocalization measures undertaken by Lizhuang’s local authorities. This
article contributes to the theoretical discourse on localization in tourism studies
Received: September 18, 2024 in historical towns and enriches empirical research by providing insights from the
Revised: January 9, 2025 case of Lizhuang’s historical town. The findings offer valuable local experiences for
Accepted: January 22, 2025 guiding localization efforts in tourism development within historical towns.
Published online: February 26,
2025 Keywords: Tourism; Anthropology; Locality; Placelessness; Relocalization; Sense of place
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s).
This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution- 1. Introduction
Non-Commercial 4.0 International
(CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits all In the current era of globalization, the continuous influx of foreign cultures and
non-commercial use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, imports has compelled local cultures to undergo modernization, often resulting in a
provided the original work is loss of local specificity and significance. Traditional folk and social cultures, including
properly cited. architecture and festivals, have experienced varying degrees of transformation in
Publisher’s Note: AccScience both their forms of expression and connotation. From a critical perspective, scholars
Publishing remains neutral with have put forward the concepts of “placelessness” (Relph, 1976) and “delocalizing”
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional (Heyman, 1994) to describe the challenges that locality faces in the context of
affiliations. globalization. Conversely, other scholars view modernization as a process that enables

Volume 7 Issue 3 (2025) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.4876