Introduction

On 14 November 2008, Inter Press News Agency published a travel report entitled ‘Shangri-La under Tourist Siege’ by Antoaneta Bezlova. The success of British author James Hilton's book, Lost Horizon, has motivated tourists to pursue a mystical utopia, to discover an enclosed paradise of carefree happiness and to flourish free of contamination from the outside world. County Zhongdian in the Province of Yunnan, China, tried to cash in on the area's unique history, culture and nature by renaming itself Shangri-La and asserting that the novel Lost Horizon was set there. The neighboring town, Lijiang, has a large concentration of ethnic minority, the Naxi, who make up 70% of the population. Ethnic Naxi have a matrilineal society led by shamans (the Dongbas) who developed their own hieroglyphic writing system that dates back to the 14th century.

In 1997, Lijiang was given UNESCO's World Heritage status, which provided an immediate boost to tourist numbers. From 1997 to 2007, the old town's tourist numbers grew from 1.7 million to 4.6 million. The famous Chinese film director, Yimou Zhang, created a show called ‘Impressions Lijiang’, presented on a spectacular open-air stage with a cast of 500 amateur performers from 10 ethnic groups. The show tapped into a growing fascination among Han-majority Chinese for the lives and experiences of the country's exotic ‘others’. Through ethnic songs and dances, tourists erupted in cheers as they followed gyrating movements and incantations of the Dongbas. At the end of the show, tourists applauded with enthusiasm, ‘We like you’, ‘We will be back!’.

At the end of the program, tourists lined up to receive Dongbas’ symbolic blessing. Every spectator scribbled a wish on a piece of paper and dropped it in the Shamans’ urn in the hope that their magical spells would make it come true.