Yes, many destinations have been using culture as a unique element to attract tourist and Taiwan is not an exception. In terms of Taiwan, commodification of culture would mean transforming the aboriginal cultures and traditions into a product that could be packed and sold in forms of cultural dance performances for the tourist’s consumption. Tourism has been a culprit in the act because when tourism increases, more tourist would visit Taiwan and normal tourist would like to experience a different culture when they stopover.
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When their demand for these cultural shows increases but is met with limited supply, the tourist would be willing to offer a higher price to catch a glimpse of the local culture. Thus more performances would be held to meet the demand and earn the money from the tourists. This would result in traditional aboriginal rituals and dance to be taken for granted since the local performance is predicted to be performed and is generally available and included in mass tourist itineraries.
So the performance, being valued equally with the entrance fees is like providing tourist an opportunity to watch a movie as long as have the means to afford the ticket, thus classifying the traditional culture as a commodity. The aborigines having to perform the same item repeatedly to the various batches of tourist makes their performance standardised which cause the heritage to lose its value to aboriginal communities as their rituals which are supposed to be carry out on special occasions are being performed at a daily basis.
Furthermore the dance and rituals are usually tweaked to adapt to the standard that suits the tourist such as the length and content of the performance which could lead to a materialisation of an entirely new culture. The authenticity of the cultural performance is the aspect that draws the tourist, their demand is for the real culture and not the staged authenticity of performance resulting from commodification. The increase in the commdification of culture and heritage would lead to a decline in tourism demand of viewing the aboriginal performance. Thus brings up the importance of balancing the authenticity and rate of commodity on the culture to ensure the sustainability of the culture and tourism.
An example is when I visited Taiwan as a mass tourist in 2008, my itinerary included a traditional dance performance before my dinner at the same location. We were told which aboriginal tribes they were from but I could not remember which tribes were performing in the diverse aboriginal cultural show that night. There were several dance items and the final one included all of them to dance together. The final item is definitely inauthentic because the different tribes in Taiwan do not have a similar dance as their cultures are vastly different and unique to their specific tribes.
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Any changes to combine the different cultural dances would already cause the performance to be inauthentic. Furthermore their costumes they wore were so colourful and lively that I could not decide which tribe they were from when comparing to their traditional attire of each tribe as they contrast far too much. Hence it seems like these performers have included new elements of dance and costumes to impress the audience who purchased the tickets to this cultural performance which seems like a product specially put together to entertain the tourists.
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In addition, the aborigines pulled several tourists to join them in their dance and one of them took pictures of the tourists on stage with the colourfully dressed aborigines. At the end of the programme, the aborigines forced the people to buy the photographs by pushing it forcefully into their hands and demanding the fee. Our tour guide did warn us of this happening and advise us to not go up on stage if we do not want to pay for the photos. It means that this gimmick and performance is used repeatedly. This further substantiates my thoughts of the cultural performance being a commodity to earn revenue.
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When their demand for these cultural shows increases but is met with limited supply, the tourist would be willing to offer a higher price to catch a glimpse of the local culture. Thus more performances would be held to meet the demand and earn the money from the tourists. This would result in traditional aboriginal rituals and dance to be taken for granted since the local performance is predicted to be performed and is generally available and included in mass tourist itineraries.
So the performance, being valued equally with the entrance fees is like providing tourist an opportunity to watch a movie as long as have the means to afford the ticket, thus classifying the traditional culture as a commodity. The aborigines having to perform the same item repeatedly to the various batches of tourist makes their performance standardised which cause the heritage to lose its value to aboriginal communities as their rituals which are supposed to be carry out on special occasions are being performed at a daily basis.
Furthermore the dance and rituals are usually tweaked to adapt to the standard that suits the tourist such as the length and content of the performance which could lead to a materialisation of an entirely new culture. The authenticity of the cultural performance is the aspect that draws the tourist, their demand is for the real culture and not the staged authenticity of performance resulting from commodification. The increase in the commdification of culture and heritage would lead to a decline in tourism demand of viewing the aboriginal performance. Thus brings up the importance of balancing the authenticity and rate of commodity on the culture to ensure the sustainability of the culture and tourism.
An example is when I visited Taiwan as a mass tourist in 2008, my itinerary included a traditional dance performance before my dinner at the same location. We were told which aboriginal tribes they were from but I could not remember which tribes were performing in the diverse aboriginal cultural show that night. There were several dance items and the final one included all of them to dance together. The final item is definitely inauthentic because the different tribes in Taiwan do not have a similar dance as their cultures are vastly different and unique to their specific tribes.
_
Any changes to combine the different cultural dances would already cause the performance to be inauthentic. Furthermore their costumes they wore were so colourful and lively that I could not decide which tribe they were from when comparing to their traditional attire of each tribe as they contrast far too much. Hence it seems like these performers have included new elements of dance and costumes to impress the audience who purchased the tickets to this cultural performance which seems like a product specially put together to entertain the tourists.
_
In addition, the aborigines pulled several tourists to join them in their dance and one of them took pictures of the tourists on stage with the colourfully dressed aborigines. At the end of the programme, the aborigines forced the people to buy the photographs by pushing it forcefully into their hands and demanding the fee. Our tour guide did warn us of this happening and advise us to not go up on stage if we do not want to pay for the photos. It means that this gimmick and performance is used repeatedly. This further substantiates my thoughts of the cultural performance being a commodity to earn revenue.
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