Red Tourism in China : Commodification of Propaganda

This book analyzes the phenomenally profitable “Red Tourism” industry in China, in which visitors make pilgrimages to sites of historical significance to the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Revolution.

The book examines Red Tourism in connection with the transforming power relations between the state and the private, communication in the socialist past, and the current round of capitalization, against the backdrop of the world’s second largest economy. By re-evaluating the conventional notion of propaganda through the lens of neutral xuanchuan propaganda, the book presents a nuanced look at the social space of Red Tourism, revealing that propaganda should be conceived as a commodity, an industry, or even a media system similar to the news media.

Drawn from combining fieldwork and cultural analysis spanning a decade, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of communication studies, tourism, and Chinese politics.

Chunfeng Lin is Associate Professor of Communication at East China Normal University, China.