Backpacking and Identity Construction: Self-Ethnography of a Married Female Backpacker

Abstract

The identity construction of a "backpacker" has always been an important topic in research on backpacking. Most current studies analyze the backpacker group as a whole, with insufficient investigation into the differences among different groups. Western scholars found that female and male backpackers had obvious differences in tourism patterns. Considering the different social situations and differences in backpacker' behavior between China and the West, we must examine whether the Western research conclusions are applicable to China. Particularly, married females in China are the core members of the family. Compared with unmarried females, they shoulder more family responsibilities. There is insufficient research on their identity construction as backpackers. This study introduces a married female backpacker's journey through self-ethnography. The study found that parents' travel behavior was the main method of intergenerational transmission of backpacking, and it was also the embodiment of parents' hidden influence on the construction of children's identity. In addition, the will of parents was affected by traditional culture on the cognition of social roles, while the family shouldered the pressure to resist the traditional role concept of society. The disobedience of the owner of the family's power regarding the traditional role norms was a resistance to the traditional power system, which enabled children to break through the social stereotypes and prejudice and practice backpacking. In the traditional family concept, the married female was excluded from backpacking because of their "dependent" role. The path of the married female backpacker ran through the struggle against social role stereotypes, cultural concepts, and consumerism. The research proposed that the breaking of traditional social role cognition and the shaping of new social role characteristics were the important concept origin of the construction of the married female backpacker identity. Meanwhile, it also developed the theory of backpacker identity construction, and argued that the construction of the married female backpacker identity not only occurred in the "difference" against ordinary tourists, but also in the individual's pursuit of self-determination. Through backpacking, in a unique way, the married female could participate in behaviors that reflected their personal interests or values, and had the capability to engage in valuable or challenging behaviors. Thus, they established close ties with others, broke the role shackles under traditional social concepts with their actual behaviors, controlled their travel consumption decisions, integrated into the backpacker group, and shaped new social roles, and then realized the improvement of subjective well-being. Accordingly, modern backpackers are capable of realizing the pursuit of happiness and reflecting on consumerism through self-determination.

Keywords

• self-ethnography
• married female backpackers
• social role
• self-determination