The influence of tourism on the sustaining of vernacular architechtural tradition embodied in the Bai and Naxi dwellings in Yunnan, China.

Yunnan is an economically underdeveloped region in south-western China, in which many ethnic settlements are preserved well. Within the last two decades, many ethnic communities at a grass-roots social level have been conducting a series of tourism-related developments of Bai and Naxi dwellings in Yunnan. They are altering, restoring, rebuilding, refurbishing and renewing ordinary Bai or Naxi dwellings into multi-function dwellings, which are not only the residential homes of families, but are also capable of providing an exotic cultural experience for tourists‘ consumption. Nevertheless, Bai and Naxi dwellings are representations of a living culture, embodying a complex set of vernacular architectural traditions which have been transmitted for many generations. When the Bai and Naxi dwellings are involved in tourism development, the transmission and adaptation of these vernacular architectural traditions are changed, and the manner in which such traditions aresustained in new circumstances becomes an interesting problem. This study explores the influence of tourism development on sustaining the vernacular architectural tradition embodied in Bai and Naxi dwellings in Yunnan, China. The researcher has conducted three rounds of fieldwork, choosing 30 Bai and Naxi dwellings involved in tourism development, from four ethnic minority settlements in Yunnan, for investigation. Observation, interview and questionnaire have been applied to collect data, and template analysis has been used to analyse the data. The results of the analysis show that if tourism development is conducted mainly at a community level, itcan enhance the sustaining of the vernacular architectural tradition embodied in Bai and Naxi dwellings. In summary, the sustaining of vernacular architectural tradition is not simply influenced by the nature of tourism, but is highly dependent on the social level of the developers, the construction pattern they choose, and the socio-cultural interaction they produce.