Understanding Young Chinese Backpackers

The Pursuit of Freedom and Its Risks

Jia Xie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000410570
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Business

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 individualised society through backpacking.

This volume investigates contemporary young Chinese persons' 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 indicate 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 hand, the risks of pursuing a freewheeling lifestyle within an individualised society drive the majority of them to return home. The author concludes that this phenomenon is 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.

1 Introduction

1.1 The popularity of backpacking in China

Half a century after western hippies began backpacking from Europe to Asia on the old Silk Road, young Chinese backpackers are discovering the joys of hitting the road.

(Cottrell, 2014)

Thus begins Christopher Cottrell’s article Young Chinese Backpackers Hit the Road, published in October 2014 by The Guardian. The article suggests that there has been an emergence of a young backpacking generation in China, who seek to undertake long-term, independent trips to foreign countries. The article introduced a 33-year-old Chinese woman who had backpacked across China and India after deciding to leave her office job. Three days later, China Daily, the official English-language newspaper published by the central Chinese government, republished the article on its website (China Daily, 2014). Later, in 2016, China News Service, the second-largest state-owned news agency in China, published a report (in English) on young Chinese backpackers, stating that ‘budget traveling – whether it be hitchhiking, couchsurfing or camping and eating simple – has become a trend for the younger generation of Chinese travellers’ (Mo, 2016). The author of the report interviewed two backpackers: Xu Jing, who had previously quit her nine-to-five office job and travelled to Africa on a budget, with an average daily budget of less than 60 yuan;¹ and Wu Fangzhou, a university student, who travelled through 13 Chinese provinces in 50 days, spending only 4,000 yuan. In 2016, People’s Daily – the largest national newspaper in China – published a commentary stating that budget travellers ‘get ready before setting off’ (Xu, 2016); in the article, the author noted how budget travel has become extremely popular among young people, in particular college students. However, the article warned that dangers such as safety issues and food poisoning, as well as conflicts caused by cultural differences, might be a risk if travellers are not well prepared.

The emergence of backpacker tourism in China is not new. Since the late 1990s, backpacking has become popular among the urban middle class, emerging alongside a large number of outdoor adventure clubs that have appeared in major cities in China (Zhu, 2007). However, the development of backpacker tourism can be understood to expand beyond the urban middle class, as greater numbers of young people are becoming involved with the activity and lifestyle. In 2010, 450 questionnaires were distributed in youth hostels across China. Among the 416 respondents, the majority of Chinese backpackers sat in the age group of 21–35 years old (78.6%) (Chen et al., 2014). In 2012, Yu (2012) received 449 questionnaires answered by Chinese backpackers; the results showed that the 21–25 age group contained the largest number of Chinese backpackers (35.9%), followed by the age group 26–30 (27.8%). In the meantime, countries such as New Zealand (in 2008) and Australia (in 2015) agreed the Working Holiday Visa with the Chinese government,² subsequently allowing thousands of young Chinese citizens between 18–30 years old – and possessing tertiary education and English language skills – to experience a working holiday in New Zealand and Australia. As a result, travel books on backpacking have become bestsellers in China, and concepts such as the ‘gap year’ have been introduced into the Chinese language (Wu, 2015). It is noteworthy that the majority of young backpackers can be seen to be the ‘baling hou’ (八零后, the post-1980s generation), who have grown up with, and responded to, the abrupt social changes incurred by the Reform and Opening-Up Policy (Lian, 2014). According to the aforementioned article by China News Service, there were more than 77 million independent Chinese outbound tourists in 2014, and 62.4 per cent of these were aged between 21 and 30.

The second development of backpacker tourism is the popularity of budget travel. Independent travellers jostle for cheap beds in hostels and hitchhike as a means of travelling, whilst eating street food. The term ‘qiong you’ (穷游, budget travel) has become fashionable in recent years; the term is a combination of ‘qiong’ (poor) and ‘you’ (travel), promoting the idea that ‘qiong yi ke you’ (穷亦可游, anyone can travel, despite being economically poor). The essence of ‘qiong you’ is to spend as little money as possible when travelling. For example, the aforementioned China News Service report (Mo, 2016) indicates how a ‘qiong youer’ (穷游者, budget traveller) spent around 7 GBP per day when travelling in Africa. The term ‘qiong youer’ is often used to refer to long-term independent budget travellers, who are distinguished from outdoor enthusiasts – the pioneering backpackers in China – although both are recognised as backpackers. The tourism consultant website Qyer.com (穷游网) has played an important role in the development of budget travel, as the founder of the term in China. In 2004, a Chinese student who had previously studied in Germany founded the company, seeking to cater for China’s outbound tourists desiring self-organised travel in Europe. Qyer.com positions itself as a kind of Lonely Planet (the iconic travel guidebook series) for the Internet age (Xiang, 2013).

Furthermore, one recent study (Xu and Wu, 2016) noted the emergence of lifestyle entrepreneurs and working tourists in China. Together with retired ‘snowbirds’,³ they were recognised as undertaking ‘lifestyle mobility’ in China. The majority of lifestyle entrepreneurs and working tourists in the study were young and well-educated, moving from the most developed areas of China to Yunnan, a world-famous backpacking destination (Lonely Planet, 2017). These lifestyle entrepreneurs had previously held white-collar jobs; subsequently, they moved to Yunnan and opened small businesses, seeking a slower pace of life. In the study, the working tourists were generally university students and long-term backpackers; they sometimes worked for lifestyle entrepreneurs. The two groups were interdependent, forming their own communities in Yunnan.

Although backpacking has gained popularity in China, the relationship between the social, cultural and technological changes that have occurred in recent years and the development of backpacker tourism has remained unexplored. Accordingly, it is necessary to examine the reasons for the identified increase in young backpackers and budget travellers in China. The next section introduces the history of backpacker tourism in China and reviews the existing literature on Chinese backpackers.

1.2 The history and studies of backpacker tourism in China

The term ‘donkey friend’ was coined in the 1990s by a group of Chinese travellers, and was used to identify and distinguish their distinct travel behaviours, alongside, and in contrast to, the rapid development of mass tourism (Zhang, 2008; Luo et al., 2014). In Mandarin, the term has a similar pronunciation to the word ‘tourism’; however, it has a very different meaning. The word ‘donkey’ emphasises that these travellers are as friendly, perseverant and enduring as donkeys; the word ‘friend’ indicates that these travellers identify as a friendship group (Luo et al., 2014). Donkey friends were no longer content to participate in the standardised, package tours provided by travel agencies. Distinguishing themselves from mass tourists, they organised their trips independently, and pursued risk and adventure during their trips (Lim, 2009). These ‘donkey friends’ were widely understood as Chinese backpackers, as they were found to have similar behavioural characteristics to Western backpackers (Luo et al., 2014; Chen et al., 2014; Zhu, 2007; Zhang, 2008; Lim, 2009; Shepherd, 2009; Chen and Weiler, 2014).

Internet communities have played an important role in the emergence and development of donkey friends. During their self-organised trips, these groups rely on local news-based BBS and travel-based communities in order to exchange information and build cooperation (Zhang, 2008). Unique in-group communication is also developed through the creation of relevant terms; for example, ‘old/head donkey’ refers to the more experienced travellers, whilst ‘the mill’ denotes physical or virtual gathering spaces (Lim, 2009). Most often, the organisers are travel enthusiasts and work as volunteers to devise and arrange activities (Kristensen, 2013). These communities, primarily formed by the urban middle classes, also encourage members to engage in voluntary projects based on self-organisation, seeking to practise democratic values and resolve social problems (Zhang, 2008). Accordingly, researchers such as Zhang (2008) and Lim (2009) argue that the emergence of donkey friends indicates an early form of civil society in China, founded on the Internet.

However, these studies tend to overlook the role that business interests have played in the expansion of the donkey friends’ movement; this point was highlighted in 2007 by Zhu in her seminal work on Chinese backpackers. In reviewing the history of international backpacker tourism, as well as tracing its history in China, Zhu suggests that the emergence of backpacker tourism in China is unique. Lacking a history of the Grand Tour or the hippie culture, China’s backpacker culture was largely initiated by the popularity of outdoor activity. In the 1990s, a few outdoor product companies sponsored outdoor activity clubs in order to attract new urban middle-class consumers; this led to the flourishing of relevant clubs in big cities. Activities such as mountaineering, hiking and biking were portrayed as cool and fashionable, and, as a result, the urban middle classes participated in outdoor activity with the aim of pursuing adventure and novelty (Zhu, 2007, p. 55).

As one of the earliest scholars to study backpacker tourism in China, Zhu conducted the first ever large-scale survey on Chinese backpackers around 2006 (published in Zhu, 2007). Based on 127 questionnaires, Zhu outlined the demographic characteristics of Chinese backpackers. Questionnaires were distributed through the author’s social network, youth hostels and backpacker-based websites, and answered by both overseas and domestic Chinese backpackers. In terms of gender, respondents were almost equally male or female. The average educational level of Chinese backpackers was extremely high: 97.2% respondents had completed college-level education, and 30.6% had earned a master’s degree or a PhD. Of the respondents, 52.5% earned at least 48,000 yuan per year. In line with the factors of income and occupation, the majority of respondents were middle class and living in the first-tier cities (2007, pp. 99–101). In terms of age, 35.5% respondents were aged 26-30, followed by the 31–35 age group (26.2%).

Furthermore, Zhu found that only a small number of younger Chinese citizens (under 25) were conducting this type of travel; this contrasted with the fact that people aged under 25 were the most common group to undertake backpacking in Western countries. She suggested that there were several factors preventing Chinese youngsters from backpacking (2007, pp. 114–115). The first was due to traditional Chinese culture: ‘fumu zai, bu yuanyou, you bi you fang’ (父母在, 不远游, 游必有方). This phrase translates as: ‘when his parents are alive, a son should not go far away; if he does, he must let them know where he goes.’ As ‘xiao’ (孝), which translates as ‘filial piety’, is an essential value of Confucianism, leaving home means that one cannot accompany or take care of their parents. Moreover, Zhu noted that 18–25 is the age that most Chinese citizens are busy studying or preparing for a career. Thus, there would be potential losses relating to opportunities, as young adults may be able to instead participate in after-class tutorials or internships that might be helpful to their future career. China does not possess the ‘gap year’ culture or the Grand Tour tradition that are prevalent in the Western world. Additionally, one consequence of the ‘Only Child’ policy is that Chinese teenagers are closely protected by their families, and backpacking is often perceived as dangerous. As a result, few young people follow the old proverb ‘du wanjuan shu, xing wanli lu’ (读万卷书, 行万里路), which translates as ‘read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles’. However, Zhu overlooks the changes in the social structure within China over recent decades, so she fails to explain why or how traditional Chinese culture continues to greatly impact contemporary Chinese society, while the influence of another traditional idea – ‘read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles’ – has been significantly weakened.

Zhu concludes that the Internet and outdoor companies have directly contributed to the emergence of backpacker tourism in China. Additionally, the underlying reason for the popularity of backpacking in China is that the urban middle classes were largely influenced by Western postmodern culture (Zhu, 2007, p. 79). According to Zhu, affluent urban Chinese underwent a spiritual crisis, resulting from the transition within China from a traditional society to an information society. Postmodern Western culture, as a critique of modern culture, sought to challenge both itself and the authorities (Zhu, 2007, p. 79). Backpacking – influenced by the hippie countercultural movement – emphasises perseverance and a hardworking spirit, and thus it was regarded as part of a postmodern lifestyle (Zhu, 2007, p. 181). Affluent urban Chinese thus employed risky and exploratory travel activities as a way to resist the dullness of routine, as well as to escape from an increasingly institutionalised modern world. To conclude, due to urbanisation and modernis...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Glossary
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Conceptualisation
• Chapter 3: Methodology
• Chapter 4: Pursuing freedom: Backpackers in the eyes of their contemporaries
• Chapter 5: Be a backpacker, be independent
• Chapter 6: Alternative seeker: Backpacking as a way of life
• Chapter 7: A new classification of the backpacker
• Chapter 8: Understanding young Chinese backpackers: The pursuit of freedom and its risks
• Appendix
• References
• Index