Fifth International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

Camping largely developed in Republican China as an activity embraced by the Scout movement, particularly from 1926, as the political appropriation of the movement rendered it mainstream and more far-reaching. It also emerged from outside the Scouting context. The YMCA, for instance, operated an experimental camp in 1933, ten camps in 1934, and an international camp in August 1935. Against this background, camping gradually emerged as an attractive activity. It also met with resistance. In a 1931 article of The Life Weekly, a traveller explained that summer camps thrived among young Europeans and Americans, and noticed how they had not yet become common in China. He gave a reason for that: the lack of a feel for the outdoors associated with a culture of heat avoidance. Open air exposure was another factor. In 1933, a journalist of the China Traveler exhorting readers to camp in the countryside in summer needed to dispel fears associated with greater exposure to the elements, while a writer in another travel magazine who depicted the advantages of camping life to his readers had to explain that the sun was not to be feared. The traditional associations of travel with discomfort, and the emphasis on hygiene of this period may have been other important factors for a reluctance to camp. This paper analyses these tensions surrounding the introduction of camping in China, while seeking to understand them particularly in the light of Western and Chinese travel cultures, and as manifestations of broader realities and cultural clashes.