Spatial Production of Chengdu Bamboo Craft Village in "Post-Rural" Context: From the Perspective of Three-Fold Model of Rural Space

Abstract

The transformation and reconstruction of traditional villages into "post-rural" tourism communities constitute a primary pathway for achieving modernization in rural areas on the outskirts of large metropolitan areas and advancing countryside revitalization. The evolutionary process of this transition also serves as an important perspective for understanding the socio-economic development of rural areas in China. We selected Chengdu Bamboo Craft Village as a case study, employing a comprehensive rural spatial framework based on the "rural locality-representations of the rural-everyday lives of the rural." Grounded in a multi-dimensional analysis perspective of "capital-power-individual," it dissects the multi-dimensional spatial reproduction process of "post-rural" tourism communities, aiming to provide support for exploring the spatial evolution, relational changes, and governance practices of rural tourism destinations under the backdrop of capital invest in rural areas. The main conclusions drawn are as follows: (1) The tourism development and governance of Bamboo Craft Village went through two phases and two models, transitioning from the lease-operation tourism model formed by early external enterprises to the later community-based tourism model established by social work organizations. The convergence of these two models achieved the synergy of internal and external driving forces, promoting sustainable tourism development in Bamboo Craft Village. (2) Under the lease-operation tourism model, external enterprises became the dominant power in the representations of the rural, shaping the representation of the rural as the main dimension in the triple space. Through top-down institutional construction, village space production was guided to realize the tourism concept of external enterprises. (3) The community-based tourism model clarified the position of the community as the major subject of everyday life in the tourism development of Bamboo Craft Villages. Under the empowerment and co-power philosophy, the introduction of social work organizations enhanced the tourism participation efficiency and governance level of the village subject, ensuring its discourse power in rural space production. (4) The spatial production system of "post-rural" tourism communities is jointly driven by order discourse subjects and everyday lives subjects. The issuance and response to rural revitalization policies from the national to local levels serve as external opportunities driving the transformation of traditional villages into tourism, where external enterprises intervene in rural space reconstruction for capital appreciation and recycling under policy guidance, constructing the envisioned development prospects of rural tourism communities at a macro level. Facing increased urban-rural migration, "post-rural" communities are actively adapting to both the benefits and drawbacks of modern influences. Additionally, the guiding role of short video media in the visual consumption era promotes landscape production and visual consumption in the Bamboo Craft Village. The fundamental driving force of "post-rural" spatial production is formed by the combined feedback of bottom-up subject actions and the visual consumption demands of tourists at the micro level. This study further expands the localization empirical research of the three-fold model of rural space, which helps guide the healthy development of rural tourism communities in the suburbs of metropolitan areas and achieves the dual purpose of promoting rural economic development and optimizing social ecology.

Keywords

• threefold model of rural space
• spatial production
• post-rural
• place of tourism
• bamboo craft village