A Response

This article's thesis is the unexpected routine that astonished the author. The author argues that a version of packaged ethnic success was the ritual she experienced on her visit to Kaili. The author explains how, on that specific day, she witnessed an unusual ritual. Teenage girls were hired from the countryside in the new hotel complex to serve as chambermaids, waitresses and receptionists (Schein 69).
I agree with the author that a version of packaged ethnic success was the ritual carried out in Kaili. Also in very few hotels around the world, cultural heritage is embraced, including in Kaili. The hotel had gone out of the usual hotel duties to entertain their visitors with the ethnic performance from the young girls. This cultural performance involved a representative of different subgroups and minorities. Each employee wore a distinct costume and headdress every time. The performance of song and dance and the occasional pose in full costume for cameras is what makes this entire ritual unexpected to any person visiting Kaili for the first time (Schein 69).I do not see any problem with the author’s argument that Kaili has been promoted. It is rare to find a multinational hotel like Kaili that still values its cultural heritage and incorporate it into its daily activities. Almost all international hotels across the world embrace the western culture in their duties for the sake of attracting most western tourists. I can apply the internal orientalism concept to other places as a means of promoting and sharing the minority ethnic values to the world. Internal orientalism as a means of cultural discourse can become hegemonic in other places such as western countries. Internal orientalism can also be implicated in creating national identities.Works CitedSchein, Louisa. "Gender and internal orientalism in China." Modern China 23.1 (1997): 69-98.