Consuming geopolitics and feeling maritime territoriality: The case of China's patriotic tourism in the South China Sea

This paper develops the concept of territorial socialisation and explores the process and effect of tourism in China's maritime territorialisation of the South China Sea. The research demonstrates the mutual constitution of tourism and territorialisation and suggests that tourism is playing an increasingly important role in everyday contexts to socialise individuals into national-territorial thinking. However, tourism alone does not decidedly stoke strong territorial nationalism, instead it produces uneven bordering or territorialisation effects at the personal level. Tourism practices, tourist agency, and the distinct wet ontology of the sea complicate the state maritime territorialisation process. The research also shows that the Chinese tourists are pragmatic, calculative geopolitical actors. Their geopolitical experiences through tourism are connected to, and embedded in, the broad geopolitical realities of China's rising and unjust international orders, while informed by official territorial rhetoric and traditional political culture.