Tourism and Folk Music: City Branding, Musical Imaginaries, and the creation of tourist destinations in Yulin, Chengdu (China)

Résumé

As intercity competition increases, cities search for distinctive meanings and create identifiable symbols for places to increase their attractiveness. These symbols change the urban landscape and shift the characteristics of ordinary neighborhoods. This paper is a case study of a neighborhood called Yulin in Chengdu in southwest China. Developed in the 1980s, Yulin was an ordinary neighborhood representing Chengdu’s work unit housing in the 1980s and 90s. Although its name is well known by locals, Yulin was suddenly exposed to the wider public of the country due to a folk song. In 2017, a folk musician, Zhao Lei, performed his song, Chengdu, on Hunan TV. Using guitar, piano, and children’s voices, the song depicts a romantic story on the street of Yulin and reinforces the imaginaries of Chengdu as a leisure city. Names and addresses in the lyrics became well-known overnight. From then on, tourism-induced investments have driven significant changes in Yulin. This study focuses on the built environment of Yulin and shows the power of folk music to shift people, buildings, and money. It discusses how a contemporary folk song resonates with the imaginaries of Chengdu as “the city of leisure” and how Yulin has been changed due to musical imaginaries. In addition, it aims to enrich the discourse of city branding and placemaking to raise awareness of tourism-induced changes in ordinary neighborhoods, in China and beyond.

Keywords: Chengdu, tourism, folk music, leisure city, city branding, tourism-induced placemaking.