Who are the “Hosts”?: Village Tours in Fenghuang County, China

In this article, from an anthropological power and scale perspective, I critically apply aspects of the McDonaldization thesis to the analysis of ethnographic cases of three village tours in Fenghuang County of rural China. I examine the role of tour operators as an emerging dominant power in shaping local tourism and society, through which both the toured and tourists are being objectified and consumed for profit at the hands of the global market. I explore resistance and acceptance from the toured and tourists in their response to global forces of commodification, dehumanization, and alienation. This article reveals the dynamics of the global process of