广州旧城改造中,以旅游发展为动力的现象经常出现,广州西关上下九路就是其中之一。研究通过网络收集有关上下九的旅游营销图片,对它们进行内容分析,解析图像中具体的构图元素和修辞手法,探究图像所隐喻的城市管理者(政府部门)、旅游开发商对上下九运一旅游地的认知,以及资源利用的主张,由此剖析该地存在的传统文化保护问题的深层原因。研究结果表明,关于上下九的旅游营销图片存在一个占据支配地位的摄影范式,赋予各种视觉”议题”不同程度的显著性,最终表达了上下九”繁华”、”热闹”、”大众化”的”平民”商业街形象。当那些被这种作品风格吸引的游客大量涌入时,很难期望他们能够自觉意识到上下九传统物质空间的价值和面临的各种现实问题。就这样,旅游营销图像进入了上下九旧城改造和旅游发展的过程中,并在西关文化的保护中起到一定的消极作用。本案例也表明,地方是表征的结果,被如何表征则受控于人类社会的选择。
This study attempts to identify the image representations of Guangzhou Shangxiajiu Street on internet by analyzing the marketing photos of a variety of web information sources-official tourism website, tour operators and travel agents' websites, online travel magazine and guide websites, and online travel blogs. In order to dig out the "metaphorical image" of those marketing photos, and explore the perception of city manager governors and tourism developers towards this tourist destination as well as their idea of resource utilization, Content Analysis Method (CAM) is adopted to analyze the visual information on the sampled photos from two aspects including shooting objects (contents) and shooting technique (rhetoric). The results reveals that there is a dominant "photographic paradigm" in these marketing photos of Shangxiajiu, which has endowed different visual issues with varying degrees of significance. For instant, night view, neon lights, crowds, shops and shops are emphasized in these photos, which become the icons of the street. And then the street is represented as an amorphous sprawl construction with infinite repetition of these elements. Ultimately, a "prosperous", "bustling", "popular" and "civilian" destination image is represented. However, this particular image which attracts the tourists to visit has also dominated the manner of the tourists looking, and induced them to choose certain scenic spots to shoot and remember.