Chinese Donkey Friends in Tibet – Evidence from the Cyberspace Community

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to provide insights into Chinese backpacking tourism in Tibet.Chinese backpackers, referred to as "donkey friends" in China, are distinctively Generation Y born in the 80s and 90s. They grew up at a time when China shifted political power to Deng Xiaoping's explorations with capitalism and greater openness. Aided in part by the diffusion of the Internet and web-based donkey friend associations, backpacking flourished in China.Through a virtual ethnography of a leading Internet travel forum, it has been found that Tibet appeals to Chinese backpackers mainly because of its natural environment. Backpackers in Tibet emphasize the "donkey friend" spirit and self-actualization as an important part of their trip. There is a gap between supply and demand for donkey friend travel in Tibet, particularly in terms of accommodation facilities. Attention should also be paid to managing the relationship between the local community and backpackers.3

Performing love, prosperity and Chinese hipsterism: Young independent travellers in Pai, Thailand

“…Interviews were digitally recorded and later transcribed. Most lasted for around 40 minutes discussing a range of topics such as trip organisation, touristic Although the Chinese travellers' interviews held in Pai proved a valuable source of information, due to social desirability bias (Fisher, 1993) and the need to maintain mianzi (face), many were reluctant to freely discuss the motivations behind much of their tourism consumption and production, an issue also reported by Chen and Weiler (2014), while others may simply not be aware of their own motivations (Yang et al, 2012). As such, sustained participant observation provided much of the data upon which the following sections are based.…”

From Online Community to Offline Travel Companions: Technology-Mediated Trust Building and Ad Hoc Travel Group Decision Making

“…When e-friends, members of online communities, meet together for their desired purpose, they become an offline community. Early research germane to backpacker tourism has acknowledged the role of online community development among backpackers, who utilize online platforms and forums to form social groups that not only provide information about travel but also help organize itineraries and travel arrangements (H. Chen & Weiler, 2014; Pei et al, 2014).…”

Backpacker Identity: Scale Development and Validation

“…Particularly, in Mainland China, backpacker (in Chinese Pinyin: 'Beibaoke') as a term translated from English, has not gained its dominant position in the discourse and communications among Chinese backpackers. Alternatively, the more culturally colloquial term Donkey Friends ('lvyou'), with its pronunciation in Chinese being very similar to that of travel, has been widely used (c.f., H. Chen and Weiler 2014;Luo, Huang, and Brown 2014;). This circumstance may have primarily caused selfcategorization to be a relatively less recognized identity component (e.g., "I am a typical backpacker" and "Everyone calls me a backpacker"; see Table 1).…”