Department or Program
Asian Studies
Abstract
This thesis examines tourism in Taiwan as a contemporary continuation of colonial processes through a case study of the Tsou people and the Alishan region. It traces how Tsou ancestral land was transformed into a national tourist landscape and analyzes how state tourism narratives frame Indigenous land and culture while obscuring histories of dispossession and political exclusion. At the same time, the thesis considers Indigenous tourism as a potential space for cultural continuity and self-representation when shaped by Indigenous authority and community priorities. By bringing together historical context, analysis of tourism materials, and scholarship on Indigenous tourism, this project argues that tourism is a contested space where colonial legacies persist alongside Indigenous efforts to assert presence, meaning, and control over land and narrative in contemporary Taiwan.
Level of Access
Open Access
First Advisor
Faries, Nathan
Date of Graduation
5-2026
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Recommended Citation
Corsaro, Ganga, "Spectacle and Survival: Tourism, Colonialism, and Indigenous Agency in Taiwan, A Case Study of Alishan and the Tsou Indigenous Group" (2026). Standard Theses. 14.
https://scarab.bates.edu/asian_studies_theses/14
Number of Pages
56
Open Access
Available to all.