Creation of a pseudo-language as spectacle: A critical study on the linguistic landscape of heritage tourism

As an essential component of culture, the commodification of language is a prevalent yet underexplored topic in tourism studies. This article investigates the Dongba script of the Naxi ethnic group in Lijiang, Yunnan, China, illustrating how a religious script has been transformed into a “pseudo-language” from a critical heritage studies perspective. Employing multiple methods, it explores how ethnic languages become spectacles in tourism contexts, analyzes how World Heritage discourse influences local language policies and stakeholder practices, and discusses language’s distinctive attributes as a tourism resource. The findings contribute to debates on authenticity in heritage tourism, enhance methodologies for examining linguistic landscapes, and advocate increased respect and safeguarding of minority languages in tourism research and practice.