Ziyi Liu

The Question of Boredom

By Ziyi Liu

“Traveling is an escape from a place that you are bored with to another place that another people are bored with.” I read this special definition a long time ago from the internet or a magazine. I laughed out at once because I found the word-play hilarious; I laughed again a few seconds later after I read it to myself, because I found it really telling the truth – to a great extent, at least.

I like travelling and I always remember this sentence, which I have told it to many people who then all laughed. I think the most brilliant thing of it is that it not only reveals travelers’ motive, but also stresses the condition of “another people” who are visited either directly or indirectly. And the question of boredom bothers both groups of people. Moreover, it’s not merely about boring place; deeply it’s the boring life style that people are bored with. That’s why when traveling we don’t just look, we want to experience, and want to experience more.

In order to deal with the question, we need difference. “Being different” is even important than “being good”. Travelers may not care about whether it is historical or modern, extravagant or austere, beautiful or ugly; they desire to see or experience something different to where they come from and even where they have been to. This demand might then cause a problem to “another people”, especially those who live their life in places of interest – travel destination, since even though they are bored with what they live with, they still have to keep it to satisfy the outsiders.

Biertan, the village we visited on the 4th day of our Romanian excursion, seems to face the situation mentioned above: farmers are asked and paid to maintain their traditional mode of accommodation, labor and so on, so that both domestic travelers from cities and foreign travelers are able to get the different experience. But what if villagers could get higher income and live a better life when they were free to improve the way they live and work? For villagers, it’s already a question beyond boredom; it’s closely related to livelihood and development.

There’s no doubt that some traditional life styles and production skills should be kept and passed on as non-material cultural heritage; and if they are lost they are probably lost forever, which cannot be measured by money. However, the premise is that they must have such a value to make the compromise. If a means of labor is just old, without any other saving grace, then very likely it’s just the inferior that ought to be eliminated by human progress. If something is worth keeping by making certain sacrifice of other aspects, then to what extent should this sacrifice be made? As in Biertan case, is it necessary to involve a whole village to preserve the traditional mode? On the other hand, are these traditional things valuable and attractive enough to bring travelers all the way to such a remote location?

I found few really different things about Biertan based on my former experience. Compared to other European countries, the agricultural landscape is normal in countries with clear height differences, the structure of villages is nothing particular, and architecture style has no more to say except the grape decoration on the walls. While compared to China, the traditional looms and weaving style is similar, organic orchard is not unusual and lacks of participatory experience service, and the farmhouse meal has been popular for many years in China. Of course there’s the church, and I really enjoyed climbing the bell tower and the view I got on its top; and the wood pole decorated with garlands and the relevant celebration activity is new for me. But in general, I wouldn’t come here if I was traveling instead of on an excursion. Apparently, people like me should never be considered in the target travelers. Therefore, one more thing the governors and organizers should ask themselves is: what are the target travelers?

It’s not easy to integrate tourism well into old villages or towns, whereas they happen to be a popular destination for urban people who long for the historical buildings, simple life and surrounding nature. This trend is ongoing in China’s tourism market, and more and more villages and towns are explored. Some long-developed places have achieved prosperous economy. However, a serious problem exists: the actual life style is changed due to over-exploitation. This summer, I took a trip to Feng Huang (Phoenix) – a famous historical and cultural town of South China. The rows of wooden stilt-houses along the river and intersected narrow alleys were truly fascinating, but nowadays most of the houses are converted into clubs, bars, cafes, restaurants, souvenir stores and hotels, and few people actually live there. The souvenir stores almost all sell the same things; what’s more terrible is that many of the souvenirs can be found in other Chinese historical and cultural towns. The streets and alleys are full of travelers, and there’s no quiet atmosphere any more. People still eat traditional food, local women still washes their clothes in the river using traditional methods, old players still perform traditional instruments, but is it still the town that the first outsiders fell in love with?

It feels much more boring when you finally find that the place you’ve escaped to is in fact essentially the same as where you’ve escaped from. Luckily before we will find it out, we usually have already left and gone back to enjoy the familiar boredom.

Figure 1. Biertan, Romania

Figure 2. Feng Huang (Phoenix), China