Dai Bin | Theoretical Construction and Cultural Confidence in the Process of Building a Strong Tourism Nation

On November 7th, 2020, the China Tourism Research Annual Conference of the Tourism Journal was held in Guangzhou. Dean Dai Bin was invited to attend and give a keynote speech entitled "Theoretical Construction and Cultural Confidence in the Process of Building a Tourism Strong Country". The full text is as follows:

Dear academic colleagues and young friends, valuing theoretical construction and emphasizing the importance of starting from practice and going back to practice is the historical experience and practical requirement of the Party's leadership in various work, including tourism. At this historic moment when the country has made major strategic achievements in combating the COVID-19, fought against poverty and won the battle to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, the Central Committee held the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee, deployed the work of economic and social development in the next five years, started a new journey of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, and put forward new development requirements for cultural undertakings, cultural industries and tourism. In combination with the study of the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, I will promote the high-quality development of tourism, improve the modern cultural industry system, and report some insights to comrades in the national tourism academic research, theoretical construction and ideological front. 1、 People's nature is the essential requirement of contemporary tourism development theory. Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out that "Marxist philosophical dialectical materialism has two most significant characteristics: one is its class nature, openly declaring that dialectical materialism serves the proletariat; the other is its practicality, emphasizing the dependence of theory on practice, and the foundation of theory is practice, which in turn serves practice." Adhering to the people-centered tourism development ideology, around the strategic goal of building a strong tourism country in the new era, constructing a contemporary tourism development theory and academic community that knows China and serves China, providing strong theoretical momentum and social consensus for promoting high-quality development of the tourism industry, deepening the integration of culture and tourism, should be our common responsibility and conscious action. To understand China, one must understand the history of its tourism development and the great achievements and successful experiences of becoming a tourism powerhouse since the reform and opening up. Tourism activities have existed since ancient times, and China Tourism Day on May 19th every year is to commemorate the great traveler Xu Xiake. But we cannot only see the amusement and travels of emperors, generals, nobles, and wealthy merchants. We must also see the vast majority of ordinary people facing the yellow earth and facing the sky, spending their entire lives within a hundred mile radius. Even today, when we are about to achieve a moderately prosperous society in all respects, we cannot assume that everyone can drive long distances and buy a first-class round-trip ticket to feed pigeons in Hyde Park, London like Tony Leung Chiu wai did with just one thought. Although tourism has entered the daily lives of the general public, it should also be noted that in a developing country with a population of 1.4 billion, the average person can only travel once per quarter, and the time spent on travel per person per year is only 7.65 days. The average distance traveled per trip is 73 kilometers, and the average consumption is only 941 yuan. Only with a deep and systematic understanding of this land, and only with sympathy for the people's lives, can we understand our emphasis on "making it affordable for the people to play" and continue to promote the "reduction of tickets to state-owned key scenic spots"; Only then can we understand why we insisted on using "tourism rights" as the guiding ideology for legislation when drafting the Tourism Law ten years ago; Only then can we understand why "more citizens participating and higher quality sharing" is regarded as the theoretical connotation and development goal of well-off tourism. To understand China, one must delve into the forefront of tourism industry practice, sincerely recognize the labor contributions, work values, and professional dignity of millions of ordinary workers, and always be with them like fish cannot do without water, melons cannot do without seedlings, and flowers cannot do without the sun. There is an increasingly evident tendency in professional education and academic research to look down upon working people and avoid contact with frontline tourism professionals such as tour guides, tour guides, waiters, cleaners, drivers, and salespeople. They may not understand their joys and sorrows, or simply conduct surveys to obtain data needed for paper writing. Their contact is only superficial and fleeting. This tendency is not good, it needs to arouse our attention, vigilance, and reflection from the depths of our thoughts, comrades. Technology is the primary productive force, and experts, scholars, and intellectuals are necessary for economic and social development. The Party and government have given us many honors and benefits, and society has also given us a lot of respect. These are all necessary. But you can't just think that you're amazing from this, and go to the organization with a few C-journal papers, several monographs, and academic honors to negotiate conditions and benefits. You can't just focus on personal fame and family, without seeing the practical front line in your eyes or accommodating the working people in your heart. It should be noted that only the people are the creators of history. The times are the examiners, we are the respondents, and the people are the examiners. Without understanding grassroots and frontline tourism workers, and without sympathy for rural elders and brothers who travel with cold boiled rice and instant noodles on their backs, they just repeat the old path of literature to papers, funding to monographs, and doctoral to doctoral supervisors. Learning cannot be done well, let alone accomplished. To understand China, one must step out of the ivory tower of libraries and laboratories, go among the people, and go to the forefront of tourism practice. The era of surging forward, the soil of industrial practice, and the discourse of the vast number of practitioners are the source of theoretical construction and the most reliable force for scholars. Tourism scholars should step out of their peaceful and self satisfied study rooms, step out of their self righteous logic, and conduct more field investigations to solve practical problems raised by grassroots and frontline workers. I always want to walk up to the study, pass a note, and ask for instructions, but I am unwilling to serve the grassroots. I feel ashamed to give lectures to the county party secretary and county mayor. If I do a little work and put in some effort, I will talk about conditions and treatment, which is not good. Why is the phrase 'a big river with wide waves, the wind blowing the fragrance of rice flowers on both sides' so moving? That was sung in the tunnel to the soldiers who risked their lives, not to the so-called upper class and elite socialites in the Golden Hall for personal fame and fortune. The same goes for literary and artistic creation, and the same goes for theoretical research. Since the reform and opening up, many achievements have been made in the fields of price reform, fiscal and tax reform, state-owned enterprise reform, socialist market mechanism, and supply side structural reform in the field of economics. This is because mainstream economists, represented by Sun Yefang's economics award winners, uphold the concept of benefiting the people and always serve the forefront of economic practice, rather than writing papers for the purpose of publishing international journals. Without practicality, the source of academic research in tourism will dry up, and the momentum of tourism theory construction will disappear. Only in this sense can we truly understand why 'theory is gray, while the tree of practice remains evergreen'. 2、 Practicality is the political requirement of contemporary tourism development theory. To adhere to practicality, we must pay attention to the major practical, hot and difficult issues in the great process of building a strong tourism country. With the decisive victory in poverty alleviation and the comprehensive construction of a moderately prosperous society, the first centenary Chinese Dream is about to be realized. The Party and the state are at a new historical starting point, systematically planning a five-year plan for national economic and social development, including tourism. How to assess the national tourism demand, tourism innovation momentum, and international development environment? How to promote the integration of culture and tourism, high-quality development, and building a strong tourism country? How to safeguard the development rights of enterprise employees and community residents? How to protect the ecological environment? How to inherit historical culture in order to "appreciate the beauty of culture" and "enhance cultural confidence"? How to implement key tourism tasks? How to deploy key tasks? How can theoretical research and talent cultivation better meet the needs of the country? These are major practical issues and also the questions of the times that call on tourism researchers and theoretical workers to invest their energy and do their best to complete the answer. The impact of the COVID-19 that broke out at the beginning of the year on the tourism industry has not completely disappeared, and the pressure of "external prevention input, internal prevention rebound" still exists. How to steadily promote the comprehensive resumption of work and production in the tourism industry under the normalization of epidemic prevention and control? How to guide tourism enterprises to adapt to market changes in proximity, self driving, individuality, and quality, develop a batch of micro tourism and micro vacation products, and enable urban and rural residents to appreciate the beautiful scenery around them and experience the beauty of daily life? How to assist market entities in promoting cultural creativity and technological applications, and launching several phenomenal creative products and innovative projects? How to summarize and promote the experience of the tourism system and tourism front in fighting against the epidemic, so that more people can understand their efforts? These are difficult issues in tourism practice, and also hot topics that tourism education research institutions should and must pay attention to. This conference was held in the context of normalized epidemic prevention and control, as the tourism industry entered a new stage of comprehensive resumption of work and production. It is said that nearly a thousand attendees came. From the perspective of conference organization and academic community building, this is exciting data, which means that many "green peppers" and "barley" maintain a strong passion for academic research and theoretical construction, and are willing to invest energy in writing and time to communicate with peers. From the perspective of theoretical construction and the growth of young scholars, I have some concerns: attending academic conferences and exchanging ideas with peers is certainly good, but with so many industry conferences that directly face market difficulties and pain points, what a great opportunity to understand practice and cross-border communication! But it is rare to hear the voices of frontline professors and it is difficult to see the figures of young scholars. Over time, the papers we produce in the ivory tower may become increasingly refined, more suitable for publication in journals A and C in Zone A, receive more funding and talent projects, and the tourism academic community seems to be growing stronger. But what I most want to see are technological achievements like "Two Bombs and One Satellite," "Artemisinin," "Hybrid Rice," "Beidou," and "Asking Heaven," literary works like the music and dance epic "The East is Red," the lengthy communication "Who is the Most Adorable Person," the novel "Ordinary World," the poetry "Answer," and the oil painting "Father," and theoretical innovations like "Practice is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth," which seem to have not yet shown any obvious signs. If we cannot forget our identity as scholars and truly enter the industry practice of fighting for the people's tourism rights and building a strong tourism country, how can great works that correspond to the great era be produced? Dear front, middle, and back waves, I would love to hear your answers and am willing to discuss them in depth with you in any way possible. In fact, for tens of thousands of teachers and researchers from tourism colleges and research institutions across the country, most people may never have the opportunity to hold titles such as president, dean, academician, senior humanities scholar, Changjiang Scholar, postdoctoral supervisor, etc. throughout their lives. The vast majority of people will spend their ordinary lives in ordinary positions, so what is the meaning of our lives and work? If meaning is defined as one-dimensional fame, fortune, and success, it is highly likely to lead to nothingness. A while ago, a professor called and said, "Let's chat when we have time. I've been feeling a bit confused lately." My first impression was, "You're already a frontline scholar and feel lost. What about young people?" I couldn't help but recall a conversation with a postdoctoral fellow: "Why did you enter the station to become a postdoctoral fellow?" "Want to be a scholar?" "What is a scholar?" "Publish a lot of papers, get a lot of funding, and become a very famous person." "It seems that your teacher only teaches you how to write papers, not why. When recommending reading materials later, I wrote down Wang Jinxi, Shi Chuanxiang, Chen Binggui, Ulan Muqi, and "How Steel is Tempered". In my mind, true culture has never been the literati's refined taste that I admire within a small circle, but rather the greatness of literature, serving the country and the people. The true knowledge is not just about our brilliant academic resumes and dazzling academic titles, but about dedicating our entire lives to upholding the academic ideal of "living up to the times and traveling", and practicing the academic practice of "writing papers on the land of our motherland". If that's the case, you will feel sad for the tour guide who didn't know which day to stick to during the epidemic, sad for the father and brothers who never went to a 1A level scenic spot in their lifetime, sad for the grassroots cadres who work "five plus two, white plus black" with thousands of yuan in wages, and moved by the decision-making leadership of "one mu, three captures, one meal, three feedings". You will have endless strength every day, endless tasks to complete, and endless students to teach, how can you have time to be confused? General Secretary pointed out that the rich practice of reform and opening up and socialist modernization construction in the new era is a "rich mine" for theoretical and policy research. From mass tourism to moderately prosperous tourism, from a tourism powerhouse to a tourism powerhouse, the practice of diverse industries is a "rich mine" for tourism academic research and theoretical construction. There are patterns that can be summarized, problems that can be studied, and thousands of businesses that can engage in dialogue. With time, we will definitely create a new situation in contemporary tourism development theory, and produce a group of teaching masters, academic experts, and theoretical experts. Perhaps our generation cannot catch up, but tourism scholars born in the 1980s, 1990s, and the near future will definitely be able to catch up. You have the rationality of academic training, the opportunities given by the times, and the chance to make positive choices. Watching you live in a moderately prosperous society in all respects and embark on the journey of becoming a tourism powerhouse, I am truly delighted for you! I want to cheer for you from the bottom of my heart and strive hard, young scholars who walk with practice! 3、 Internationality is the essence of contemporary tourism development theory. Over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, significant progress has been made in tourism academic research, theoretical construction, discipline construction, curriculum construction, and textbook construction. The process of introduction, digestion, research and development, and innovation has been basically achieved, and attempts have been made to engage in dialogue with other mainstream disciplines, striving to enter the international mainstream tourism academic system. We should not underestimate ourselves or be complacent about this. Whether it is the academic community or individual scholars, it is commendable to have ambitious goals for theoretical construction and original ideas. It is even natural to want to create several masterpieces that are hidden deep in the mountains and passed down to future generations. In the new century, especially in recent years, the tourism academic community has been deeply concerned about "theoretical construction", "knowledge spillover", "disciplinary independence", and "academic community", and has made a lot of efforts. According to some evaluation criteria, some achievements have also been made. Calm down and think about it, is there also some excessive anxiety or collective unconscious anxiety? I think there are still some. The growth of disciplines and scholars has its inherent laws, from students to teachers, to scholars, and to renowned scholars. It should be said that there are clear paths, methods, and tools available. However, to truly become a pioneer and a journalist for future generations, it is necessary to examine and consciously practice the "two unprecedented changes" of the times, the country, and the world. Many times, it doesn't depend on how much we think, but on how much we do and how long we persist. The problem is that young people with great talent and potential think too much and design themselves too much, but do very little. During the epidemic, I was invited by Professor Qin Yu to write a preface for the "Collection of Hotel Scholars (2017-2020)": I believe that excellent achievements and talents should also be compatible with the current evaluation mechanism. I believe more in the article 'The great cause of governing the country, the prosperous era of immortality', but the person entrusted by history who 'sets the trend without being a teacher' has never been, and cannot be, evaluated by the present. The academic research and theoretical construction of tourism in the process of building a strong tourism country must adhere to the guidance of Marxism with a clear banner. General Secretary pointed out that contemporary Chinese philosophy society