一个被建构的东方世外桃源：对香格里拉的批判性话语分析

宁静 柳佳希 国防科技大学 湖南长沙 410000

Shangri-La in current usage is an Oriental counterpart of “Garden of Eden”. The Oxford Dictionaries defines Shangri-La as “a Tibetan utopia in James Hilton’s novel Lost Horizon, a place regarded as an earthly paradise, especially when involving a retreat from the pressures of modern civilization.[]” Although it is a term culturally and geographically referring to a place isolated from the west, Shangri-La as an Oriental symbolism is originated from a western discourse and can trace its early descriptions long before the novel’s publication.

According to Michel Foucault, it is under certain determinate historical conditions that statements are regulated and formulated[]. Similarly,the discourse of Shangri-La cannot be fully analyzed without evaluating the earliest description about Tibet produced by western travelers who had ventured into the mythical territory of the then Qing Empire.

The first encounter of western civilization and the Tibetan culture was a mixture of curiosity and despise. Susie Carson Rijnhart, a medical missionary who traveled in Tibet from 1895 to 1899 made negative comments in her book, describing the Tibetan Lama as “ignorant, superstitious and intellectually atrophied like all other priesthoods that have never come into contact with the enlightening and uplifting influence of Christian education”[].

Said contends that the author who writes about the Orient must locate his or herself vis-à-vis the Orient and translate into his or her text;this location includes the narrative voices, the themes, images circulating in the text[]. In this narration of her four years’ stay in the Tibetan plateau, the tone and voice are familiar and typical when western missionaries talking about the unconverted “barbarians”. It is the missionaries’responsibilities to “enlighten” the “ignorant,superstitious and intellectually atrophied” as other typical oriental figures. The narrator put herself on the position of a savior with good intention by“making statements about it, describing it as a Western style of dominance”. This is the typical way Orientalism works in western discourse and practice.

Many Oriental knowledge and “regime of truth”about the subjugated colonial people, for instance,the study about Persian, Egypt, and Middle East became thriving as the control extended further eastward[].Similarly, the first record and introduction of the Tibetan landscape, customs, culture and religion were formulated as the British Empire enlarge its colonies from Indian Pakistan to the rim of Himalayas and in a vain attempt to stretch into the hinterland of China. Likewise, the studies and records on Tibetan culture are accompanied by the confident marching toward the Far East, with the intruding of British troops and guns. However, Tibet never fall into the total control like India, and the difficulty in getting into the region made the place more mysterious and create far more difficulty in finding truly first-hand knowledge and made the travelogue somehow implausible.

In the early 19th century, the discourse about Shangri-La was exalted to a new level with the popularity of the book—Lost Horizon.

In Lost Horizon, Shangri-La has a splendid debut as a blended exoticism and the utopia of western imagination. Not only the place is unknown to the outside world, but also the residents retain some of the extinct characters which had been long discarded by the industrialized western world.They are inclusive of any religious belief, any value, any race and skin color[]. Compared with the demonized Middle East, the Shangri-La under James Hilton’s pen is endowed with admiration, yearning,and a touch of jealousy. James Hilton deliberately integrated the historical background into the story to make it sounds more plausible.

During this period, the discourse of Shangri-La and the Tibetan misery was constructed to forge an escape from the debacles of the western world—the First World War, the Great Depression and the coming World War Two. Unlike any other colonies which fall into the abyss with their suzerains,Shangri-La’s primitive nature, closure from the modern civilization now became a blessing for it.However, when take a closer look at the image of Shangri-La presented in the big screen. The essence is still Orientalism, which is explicitly shown by all the inappropriate and awkward settings,dresses which just show the image of Shangri-La is still a blending of western imagination and Oriental knowledge in colonial period. The following film photos all come from the 1937 version of Lost Horizon, and the mosaic settings and postmodern vivid manifest the blurring recognition of the westerners of the Tibetan and traditional Han culture.

First and foremost, the panorama of the Shangri-La lamasery is, frankly speaking, a very post-modern architecture. The building is full of straight neat lines and in a symmetrical lay out,which is in fact a very distinct features of modern architecture; of towering skyscrapers, of whitepainted walls and magnificent fountains. But the roofs bear much resemblance to the traditional Chinese architecture. All in all, the setting is like a hybrid with clean-lined modern type which reminds people of the future city in Metropolis.Nevertheless, the abrupt Chinese traditional architecture elements from time to time warn the audience that this is talking about a place situated in the southwest of Tibet plateau. The somewhat odd mixture of ancient and modern, east and west is a result of the unclear description in the original work. In the novel, the description of the architecture is ambiguous. However, the author point out that Shangri-La is an isolated but more“pure and advanced” compared with the contaminated industrialized western civilization. How to present the “advanced” side of the utopia in seclusion? On that time the most palpable evaluation standard is the modern skyscrapers. So the Hollywood director chooses to present the Shangri-La with identical modern elements to show its cultural level.

From this picture we can observe the protagonist wearing the “traditional” Chinese clothing in western notion. The outfits in the picture are neither Han nor Tibetan style, or to say more specifically it is the traditional mandarin gown. During the semi-colonial Qing dynasty, the westerners built the image of stereotyped Chinese with some typical elements such as mandarin gown,pig tail, and opium. Even in the eulogized Oriental paradise, the residents there still cannot escape the circumscribed characteristics inherent in the colonial time.

Unlike the first film photo, this profile of Shangri-La is more authentic in presenting the Chinese aesthetics. However, as Shangri-La in the western notion nowadays is particularly referring to Zen, meditation and Tibetan lamasery. This picture is more close to peach blossom spring in Chinese classics. One typical characteristic of the discourse about utopia is that the description is always ambiguous and blurred so that everyone can visualize their own version of Shangri-La.

All the film photos can prove one simple truth that in that day, although the conception of Shangri-La began to prevalent, the mass of western audience’s visage is molded by a blurred recognition of Chinese cultural presentation and Tibetan ethnicities. Nevertheless, it is the novel of Lost Horizon that first materialized the conception of oriental utopia and naming it Shangri-La. The effect on American society is enormously,the then American president Franklin D. Roosevelt especially converted Camp David to Shangri-La for the fictional Himalayan paradise[].

Then in the 1960s, when the whole western countries are going through civil movements,Shangri-La was back into the popular discussion and this time became a symbol for spiritual exploration of one’s inner world, an embodiment of free spirit against the “evil regime’s” control of the Tibetan plateau[]. The mania of Shangri-La in todays’ popular image cannot be analyzed solely as a statement, a declaration, a pilgrimage stem from the compressing industrialized lifestyle.Like Edward Said stated, “because of Orientalism the Orient was nor (and is not) a free subject of thought or action”[], likewise Shangri-La is not a free subject of thought or action. The knowledge and discourse built on this term made it impossible to interpret without taking account of the historical and political background.

The Self-Orientalism under the Hegemony of Tourism Industry

In the first part of the essay the inherent Orientalism in western-produced discourse is analyzed by evaluating how representations impregnated with European imperialism that brought the idea of Shangri-La into western discourse.However, with the tourism development, the authority of Northwestern Yunnan (where many experts contend as the geographical location of Shangri-La) finds the profitability of this Western-produced paradise.

One notable incident just show fierce this fight for the legitimate rights to be named Shangri-La can be: the Northwestern Yunnan has several autonomous regions which all declared their legitimate rights to be named Shangri-La. This dispute was closed when 17 December 2001, after years of intense lobbying by the county government, the State Council finally granted Zhongdian permission to officially rename itself “Shangri-La”[].

Although Lijiang failed to get the legitimate naming rights for Shangri-La, there are still many academic papers, tourism promotions and other media advocating the connection between Lijiang and Shangri-La under the pen of James Hilton.

This part will focus on the process of Self-Orientalism in the discursive practice in the promotional video—An Impression of Lijiang, and how this process communicates with the western produced discourse of Shangri-La.

The first focal point of the video is the juxtaposition of the Mount Himalaya and the Yulong Mountain. Like the Holy mountain in Lost Horizon,the Yulong maintain not only shapes the ancient town’s terrain but also stands as a religious symbol for the people living there. Instead of informing the audience of any information of the history of the snowy mountain and the connection between it and the local ethnicity, the emphasis is on the “unconquerable nature” of the mountain. In this video, a metaphorical discourse is formed to exaggerate the misery and femininity of the Yulong Mountain which is under the tentative endeavor and gaze from the tourist and intended audience.Notwithstanding the steepness and atrocious weather condition, the connotation is alluring and sexual—the Yulong Mountain is the last natural terrain in the raw, waiting for the tourist to consume.

In Lost Horizon, the snowy mountain is an iconic representation of the seclusion of Shangri-La. In the Chinese produced propaganda video, it also works as a lead-in and background. The target audience is on the same position as the western protagonist, who abruptly intrudes into a place totally different from their familiar industrialized world. For the tourists and the hero of Lost Horizon, to the tourists the snowy mountain is desirable, palpable by conquering the virginity of the holy mountain.

Another pivot is the ethnic group living in Lijiang—the Naxi People. Under the drive of business interest, Naxi people were moved out of the ancient town and converted to performative labors, the traditional architecture of Lijiang were re-decorated and transformed into hotel chains,and bars, cafés, and boutiques became rampant.Notwithstanding all these changes and modernity,the image of Lijiang is always a place solidified in the past. In this sense, neither the video present a true panorama of the present Lijiang,nor did it inform the audience of the authentic history of the Naxi people. Alternatively, the video fabricates a simulation of Lijiang which conforms to the imagination of a crude, pure lamasery. The complexity of An Impression of Lijiang is that, the constructors of the Self-Oriental discourse are not Naxi people; rather they are world renowned Chinese director Zhang Yimou. From his perspective, the Naxi minority just sounds like another group of Shangri-La inhabitants.

“This is a noteworthy minority, which has a population of only three hundred thousand. No one can tell where they came from, this mysterious tribe is as tough and enduring as the highland range. They live a harmonious and happy life with the mother nature.” The subtitles have at least two connotations. The Naxi people belong to an ethnic group which have no record on history and live in isolation from the very beginning. Moreover, these people are crude and primitive, observing the shaman practices on a daily basis. In fact, Naxi is a welleducated ethnic group which has been in well contact with the Han central government dated from the Ming Dynasty[]. As a matter of fact, because of their high educational level, Naxi minority is one of the few minorities who do not enjoy the “mark adding policy of college entrance examination”[].

However, under the discursive power of tourism, the other dimension of this ethnic group is eclipsed. The video emphasizes that the Naxi people as esoteric, primitive and marginal, living in seclusion with the outside world just like the hermits in Lost Horizon. As every other promptional video, An Impression of Lijiang successfully creates a halo effect around the Naxi minority. The aboriginality elaborated in the video just hit the right chord to people’s need of finding an escape from the chaotic modern life. However, this short film also set up a presupposition, a “regime of truth” for the potential tourists who would head to Lijiang afterward looking for the crudeness in the video.

The third focal point is the Lijiang city. In the video, the city’s images are fixed in several frames. In these silhouettes, the alleys are empty,tranquil, void of sound and fury. Most importantly,the commercial traces and interpersonal activities are all erased. As everyone who has stepped into the city can tell the difference, the video deliberately neglect the bars, cafés and all the glittering signs in the night—all the hints of modernity and assimilation are neglected in the video. Instead of presenting the true vision of Lijiang, the video fabricated a “simulacrum” of “how Lijiang should be.”

Briefly, the discourse of Shangri-La under the hegemony of Chinese tourism promotion is highly utilitarian and streamlined. The local ethnicity is presented in a highly condensed, simplified visual representation. An Impression of Lijiang in this sense is a manifestation of Self-Orientalism because it conforms to the Orientalistic imagination, in which Lijiang stays unchangeable, mythical and feminized.

For Foucault, knowledge is not neutral and always implicated in questions of social power;they are mutually constitutive[]. In the process of discourse formation, the power lies in the narrator who has the power to form the knowledge which “counted as truth”. And in the case of An Impression of Lijiang, the speaker is the general director—Zhang Yimou who is well recognized as the most prominent expert in delivering “Chinese Oriental beauty”. An Impression of Lijiang is in fact an integral part of the whole Impression series together with An Impression of West Lake,An Impression of Liu San Jie and other episodes.These are grand stage performances which all share director Zhang’s personal aesthetic values:magnificent and expensive stage setting, post-modern artistic vision, reverberating with the local folk song and lyrics. The hegemony of tourism industry forms a discursive hegemony—the right to impose an impression of the local cultural representation on the coming tourists falls into the hand of a few auteurs. The Xin Hua News Agency once reported this“Impression mania” and commented “these grand stage performances can easily confuse the audience who would mistakenly take for granted that what they observed on the stage can be counted as the truthful representation of the local folks.[]”

Jean Baudrilltard once said that the Disneyland is a reality show[], and today in Northwestern Yunnan,the local government is putting on reality show on a daily basis. By turning Lijiang city into a theme park, by putting the history and life and death of Naxi people on stage performance every night,the real living ethnicity of the Naxi people is gradually neglected and even dwindled accompanying the thriving tourism economy (the dropout rates rocket as the tourism industry thrives[]). The Self-Orientalism discourse is also objectionable because the discursive power do not belongs to Naxi people,rather to predominate world-renown directors who reinvent and re-organize a myth of Naxi minority and make use of this Otherness to cater to the global market of contemporary tourism industry.

To summarize, this study investigate the discourse of Shangri-La in the perspective of Michel Foucault’s notion of power and knowledge,and how the “regime of truth” functions in discursive practice. In the first part, a historical investigation is made by evaluating the power relation and Orientalism inherent to the discourse of Shangri-La. And in the second part, it is found that the conception of Shangri-La is incorporated into the tourism discourse to create a myth of local ethnicity. In other words, the tourism discourse of Shangri-La is a deliberate process of Self-Orientalism， which is an extension of Edward Said’s definition of Orientalism, an Orientalproduced discourse of self-representation catering to western imagination. An Impression of Lijiang,a propaganda video full of highly condensed symbolic representations, is taken as a specimen for analyzing the process of Self-Orientalism combined with the hegemony of discursive power. In conclusion, this study contends that neither the Western-produced conception of Shangri-La nor its Oriental materialization can be the true reflection of the Northwestern ethnic group. Instead, any attempt to identify the ethnicities of Northwestern Yunnan is a cultural reductionism and will diminish the cultural diversity of the local minorities.