Marginalisation of the Dan fishing community and relocation of Sanya fishing port, Hainan Island, China

Abstract

When marginal groups face social transformation, they risk being unable to adapt and acquire equal developmental opportunities, slipping into 'further marginalisation'. This paper explores the case of the Dan fishing community of Sanya City, Hainan, China. Efforts to transform Sanya City into an international island tourism destination involve plans to relocate Sanya fishing port and to clear the adjacent neighbourhood inhabited by the Dan people, traditionally a boat-dwelling people, who have long been marginalised relative to China's land-oriented society. As their natural and social resources dwindle, the Dan of Sanya City must cope with the loss of their homes and livelihoods, as they are forced into the city's suburbs and as the port relocation complicates the economics and practicalities of making a living from the fishing industry. This paper argues for greater attention to be given to local needs in the formulation of urban development strategies in island cities.

To study island China

“…Since the 1970s, especially after the start of the 21 st Century, nearly all boat people in Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi have settled onshore. There are still several sites in Hainan where boat dwellers live in floating homes, such as Lingshui Xincungang Port, Sanya Port, Changjiang Xingang Port, and Wenchang Puqian Port, though here too they face tensions and pressures involving terrestrial and marine industrial, urban, and social transformation (Ou & Ma, 2017).…”

“…Since the mid-1990s, Sanya Port area has undergone continuous redevelopment, transforming from a productive port to a consumer port. The fishing port has been relocated, and the Dan have been cut off from their traditional livelihoods (Ou & Ma, 2017).…”

Islands of enclavisation: Eco‐cultural island tourism and the relational geographies of near‐shore islands

“…Similar situations can be found in other scenarios of small island tourism across China. For example, studies of home‐stay fishing tourism in the Changshan Archipelago (Su et al., ) and sun, sea and sand tourism on Hainan (Ou & Ma, ) suggest that attempts to escape urban modernity through island tourism are bound up with island symbolism and island modernisation processes. This discrepancy between municipal attempts to use the island to escape urban modernity and individual desires to project the island as place of modern living is less paradoxical than it seems.…”

Islands of China and the Sinophone world

“…There exists a large Chinese-language scholarly community, with its own traditions that are influenced by but remain distinct from those of Western scholarship, as evidenced by the discussions of Chinese sociology and anthropology in Ou and Ma's (2017) contribution to this special thematic section. Chinese scholars have also evinced interest in individual islands and archipelagos as research sites, and there is a growing Chinese literature on island tourism per se.…”