Understanding Young Chinese Backpackers

<p>An activity that originated in Western societies, backpacking has gained increasing popularity among Chinese millennials. In a spirit of the ‘search for self’, young Chinese backpackers have sought to display their pursuit of freedom, independence and responsibility within an increasingly individualised society through backpacking.</p><p>This volume investigates contemporary young Chinese persons’ views on backpacking culture and backpackers. A group of Chinese backpackers are studied using interview and participant observation, and focus groups are conducted to study young professionals’ and university students’ attitudes towards backpacking. The results indicate a profound cultural change along with a degree of division. On the one hand, the backpackers often begin their journey due to a desire to pursue freedom, and use the pursuit as a process of reflexive awareness; on the other hand, the risks of pursuing a freewheeling lifestyle within an individualised society drive the majority of them to return home. The author concludes that this phenomenon is a kind of ‘staged individualism’, describing how Chinese millennials strike a balance between individual interests and wider social obligations.</p><p>Students and scholars of sociology tourism, and youth culture will be interested in this volume.</p> 1. Introduction. 2. Conceptualisation 3. Methodology. 4. Pursuing freedom: Backpackers in the eyes of their contemporaries. 5. Be a backpacker, be independent. 6 Alternative seeker: Backpacking as a way of life. 7. A new classification of the backpacker. 8. Understanding young Chinese backpackers: The pursuit of freedom and its risks