The Chinese Safari: A New Tourist Gaze in Kenya's Tourism Industy

Abstract

As Chinese investment partnerships intensify across Sub-Saharan Africa, more and more Chinese tourists are visiting the continent. Very little is known, however, about the environmental and social consequences of Chinese tourism expansion. This thesis explores how the semiotics of the wildlife safari in Kenya are restructured under the Chinese tourist gaze. Using participant observation, interviews, and surveys collected in Kenya during the summer of 2016, I examine how Chinese tourists introduce novel cultural dimensions to the safari, while at the same time interacting with old power structures that have long existed in Kenya. I use the conceptual framework of political ecology to examine these interactions as embedded within numerous intersecting layers of cultural, political, and historical dynamics. I argue that the recent influx of Chinese clients into the safari market has been leading to conflicts over the semiotics—that is, the representations and interpretations—of the tourism experience. I further argue that the Chinese tourist gaze is reinterpreting the Kenyan safari as a set of culturally dependent touristic objects known as “scenic spots” (景点jingdian). This thesis sheds light on a little-studied aspect of China-Africa relations as a new, Chinese-influenced tourism paradigm gains prominence around the world.