What would the tourist say?

Burke created the term “terministic screens” which are put in place to “direct the attention” (45).  I see how a documentary is a text that has a certain agenda therefore must attempt to direct the attention of the audience.   Documentaries can be deceiving, because they show a piece of reality.  There are no actors, and there is no script.  However, there is still a story that is being told.  It’s impossible for a documentary to show every perspective, and frankly the documentary would be boring if there was no point of view.  Of course there can be multiple layers, but there is usually an underlying point of view.

I saw Up the Yangtze as showing the perspective of the poor population of China.  These are the people who are forced to move and forced to work instead of gaining an education.  These are also the people who are exploited on the cruise ship in order to entertain tourists.  However there is no real look into the tourists and how they see China and the people working on the cruise ship.

My experience is not nearly as extreme, but I’ve been in a similar situation.  Where I work, 29% of our clientele are Asians (mostly Chinese and Vietnamese).  We have a session during orientation where we learn how to interact with these guests.  We learn things like we should not touch them on the shoulder, red is good luck, the number 8 is good luck, and always talk to the eldest member if there is a group.  This session reminded me of the session in the movie where the cruise ship workers were learning how to talk to the tourists.  In a way it’s good if it allows a worker to give the best service possible.  However, I almost find it patronizing.  It’s overgeneralizing people, and it’s also underestimating workers’ natural humanity.  I don’t remember a lot of what we learned in that session, because I figured I treat everyone the same…with sincerity and respect.  I personally didn’t find it necessary to treat people different based on their race. 

I don't think that our clientele see these things as necessary for us to know.  I also don't think that the tourists would think that modesty would necessarily equate insincerity.  The workers on the cruise ship seem to be constantly recreating a fake China that the tourists have come to expect.  Perhaps they should show a more authentic China to give tourists a better and more immediate experience with the country and the culture.  That brings the idea of authenticity into question...has this reproduced manufactured idea of China become the authentic China, because it has been reproduced so many times?