Highway Trekking to Lhasa and the (Re)Production of Tibetan Remoteness

Looking into trekking practices along the G318 national highway section, linking the Sichuan Basin with the Tibetan Plateau, this ethnographic research addresses the questions: How is the remoteness of Tibet embodied and (re)produced through contemporary trekking across Kham, the Sino-Tibetan borderland? What roles do rising mobility and connectivity between inland China and Tibet play in the ongoing project of Chinese nation-building?

Drawing on my 16-month participant observation trekking and engaging with Han Chinese trekkers, Khamba pilgrims, and tourism entrepreneurs en route to Lhasa, this talk examines the embodied experiences and shifting subjectivities that shape how trekkers imagine, prepare for, undertake, and narrate their extensive journeys. Set in the context of anthropological theories of space and mobility, the findings reveal an irony at the heart of the experience: closer encounters with local residents, environments, and cultural worlds often intensify and (re)produce, rather than diminish, perceptions of Tibet’s remoteness in contemporary Chinese society.

Situating these insights against the Chinese state agenda of “forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation,” this research invites a reconsideration of mobility between inland China and its “remote” ethnic periphery—an axis historically central to

narratives of “ethnic interaction, inter-communication, and inter-fusion” (Chi. minzu jiaowang, jiaoliu, jiaorong).

Yanke Wang is a PhD student in Chinese Studies at the University of Manchester. His research investigates trekking and pilgrimage activities in the Sichuan–Tibet region, with a focus on how mobility, state power, and Sino-Tibetan borderland dynamics shape the embodied experiences of trekkers and pilgrims.

MCI’s PGR workshops are lunchtime seminars held in person at the Manchester China Institute. They seek to bring together students, faculty and staff who can best provide feedback as postgraduate researchers develop their ideas. Free lunch will be provided.

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