Data Collection Process

Ethnography

The processes of the observation include experiencing the hyperreality onsite as a pure visitor, observing the themes/environments onsite as a participant, and observing the participants’ behaviours and having informal conversion with the visitors as an observer onsite. In the first phase, I immersed myself into the attractions as a pure visitor to explore the aura and the atmosphere, and then I started to capture my feelings and emotions through painting alongside with the records of my subjective feelings of the attractions in my diaries. Based on the observation diary at the first stage, I listed out the concepts, attractions and activities that I wanted to explore in-depth, such as the landscape at the attractions, the interactive activities and the live performances. After I had experienced onsite as a pure visitor, I produced the checklists that included themes, representation, and visitor behaviours of the attractions.

At this stage, I chose to take notes and use camera to record the scene on site as a participant observer, which had been shifted from intersubjective perspective to the objective records of what I had encountered and found out about the visitors on site. During the second stage, I focused on the contents from two aspects: what the site provided to the visitors, the layouts, activities, technology applications, etc., and how the visitors reacted and responded to the settings, which included their behaviours, conversations and activities onsite.

Semi-structured interview

In general, the visitors had been asked at the exits at the attractions if they would like to take part in the interview, and then consent forms and the briefing sheets were sent out to the visitors that allowed them to get a general background and information of the research (See the consent form and information sheets in Appendix 2). After getting access from the informants, the interviews were carried out in a quiet place inside of the attraction. Except for the Dali Museum, the organization had provided a sperate information desk for me at the exit of the virtual exhibition that made it more convenient to access to the visitors. Each interview took 8 to 10 minutes with audio recording. However, in comparison with the western tourists, the Chinese visitors at the Tang Theme Park were very hostile to be approached, which they averted their gaze to reduce the chance of talking with strangers. The detailed techniques of the data collection process at the Tang Theme Park will be covered in the following section, to start with one of my failed interaction with the visitors onsite that I had kept in my observation diary:

‘Date: 1/12/17 Weather: cold and cloudy Time: 11.30am Location: in front of the Ziyun Building at the Tang Paradise Theme Park

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There are fewer visitors on site today, and they seemed quite unfriendly to the strangers. After I got refused by a woman with her families, I found three Chinese female students who sat on the stairs and took a rest in front of the Ziyun Building.

At this time, I attempted to have eye contacts with them to see if they gave me responses. They did look back, and then I walked forward to introduce myself and asked them if they were willing to talk about their impression and experience of the park. They ignored me and pretended as they didn’t even see me! That was an embarrassing moment that made me want to find a place to hide!’

After being refused by the visitors onsite at multiple times, I had changed my strategy as ‘being there’

to approach the Chinese visitors. Instead of eye contacts and asking them the questions directly, I decided to build up the trust with the informants through interactions and taking part in the activities onsite, such as feeding the deer with other visitors at the royal deer garden, or joining their conversations about the show as the audience while they were waiting at the audience seat before the live performances started. There was one female visitor who rent the traditional Chinese Hanfu at the booth near the Lady’s Hall, after I discussed with her about the costume at the booth, she asked me to take pictures of her with her boyfriend, instead of photographing, I drew a picture of her in the costume and gave her as a gift, and then the interview was conducted successfully.

In summer, the numbers of visitors had increased in comparison with the number of visitors in winter.

Most of the visitors sat in the pavilion near the centre lake while they were enjoying the great view of the park. To fit for the Tang cultural theme, some of the Chinese visitors wore their traditional Chinese Hanfu to the park. I found two of them taking pictures while I was doing my observation at the Rosy Clouds Pavilion, we discussed the Tang culture and the costume, they were happy about being interviewed. The theatre inside of the Ziyun Building was also a good spot for me to approach the visitors, normally I attended 2 hours in advance before the live performance started, because some of the visitors were sitting inside of the theatre to get rid of the sunburn from outside, I approached them by joining their conversation about the show and popular attractions at Xi’an, once the trust had been built, the attitudes of the visitors had changed that made them were willing to take part in the interviews onsite. But the Chinese visitors paid particular attention to the issues of their personal information leakage, and some of them were not willing to be audio recorded during the interview process. In order to prevent my research causing any disrespect or unpleasant to others, and to see it from the moral perspective, I always tended to show my respect and understanding with no pressures to the interviewees. An expected approach had been applied at the Tang Theme Park that would be further explained in the following sector.

After providing the information sheet and consent form to the visitors, I would clarify to the visitors all the data I had collected would be protected with the ethical code. During the wintertime at the attraction,

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I started my interactions with the interviewees by walking with them inside of the park for an hour. At this stage, I took notes of their reactions and responses to the views and activities onsite once we arrived at the popular landmarks inside of the attraction. Based on their attitudes and the informal conversation while we were talking about during the shared walk, I wrote down particular questions that I was going to ask in the formal interview. According to Sarah Pink’s (2009) ‘Doing sensory ethnography’, walking with others and sharing the rhythm of steps together create a closeness, empathy and sense of belonging with the participants. Lee and Ingold (2006) also stress that sharing route is a form of the place-making, an environment that has been co-created by both the researcher and the participants. Lund (2008) points out the concept of ‘being there of participating’: by joining the activities with the participants, the researcher can gain better insight into others’ understandings of the environment that they are surrounding. Furthermore, Lund refuses the assumption of the dominant role of visual in research practices, and all the senses need to be accounted for, ‘It’s not about the visual, but the aural environment’.

I chose to conduct the formal interview inside of the Luyu Tea House after I shared routes with the participants inside of the park. Each interview took around ten minutes, and the informants had been asked to share their experience and feelings about the attraction while we were drinking the tea. The semi-structured interview questions were based on the structure of before, during and after. The questions were associated with the hyperreality such as motivations, previous experience, immersive experience, opinions on authenticity, sensations, etc., yet, I developed questions in specific for the interviewees based on our informal conversions from the shared routes. During the process, I did not lead the questions that allowed the interviews to express their feelings and experience freely. Most of the visitors in winter refused to be audio recorded, I took notes as much as possible in Chinese. When the interview finished, I added more details about the interview conversation. By using this approach, it built up the trust and the closeness with the participants. There was one local female resident whom I had encountered inside of the Ziyun Building, and she expressed her negative feelings and experience about the attraction while we were walking inside of the park. During the conversation, she mentioned about the inauthenticity of attractions at multiple times. She told me visitors got the same feelings and experience in different heritage tourist attractions at Xi’an. To prove her views on the attraction, she added my WeChat and took me to other attractions in Xi’an that she was talking about during the interview the next day. Another interviewee sent me the pictures he took at the attraction through WeChat to show the landscape that had impressed him the most in the evening.

During the summertime, I did not choose the approach of sharing routes with participants inside of the park because of the hot weather. To avoid the sunstroke, most of the interviews took place inside of the Ziyun Building or sat in the pavilion near the lake. After sending visitors information sheet and consent form, the interviews lasted about 6 to 10 minutes, the interview questions were as the same as the one

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in winter. When I interviewed the visitors with the traditional Chinese Tang style Hanfu, the questions focused on the subjects of ‘being part of the scene’, imagination, immersive experiences and activities.

The process of data collection in winter took longer time but provide me a deep understanding of the participants, and the experience of sharing routes with interviewees gave me the feelings of ‘being there of participating’. While the process of collecting data in was more efficient within six visitors were interviewed in two days. However, without sharing the routes with the informants, the closeness and the bond with participants were decreased in comparison with the fieldworks that I had conducted at other attractions.