Creating new cultural routes: Daka sites, colour and the tourist pose
Chinese tourism in Australia has created new cultural routes to places that must be visited (daka sites or marked places). These sites have largely been ignored by local people and established tourist operations and guides. They have flourished in the digital age, with Chinese social media platforms showing images, providing advice about how to access the sites, some potential dangers, when to take the best photographs and what colours of clothing to wear. Information shared by fellow Chinese tourists is trusted and is important for would-be tourists to take the perfect picture, with the right tourist pose at the right time, so that they can share it immediately with friends and family and accumulate cultural kudos.
This presentation explores the key factors associated with Chinese tourism that generates such sites and highlights the importance of colour and the tourist pose in perpetuating existing daka sites and generating new daka sites. Chinese tourism is creating new tourist maps of Australian cities and places beyond the cities that exist alongside conventional tourist operations and guides and is slowly beginning to infiltrate and influence conventional tourism.
Co-hosted by the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and presented as part of the 2025 City of Sydney Lunar New Year celebrations.
About the speakers
Phil McManus is Professor of Urban and Environmental Geography in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. Phil is a Vice-President of the International Geographical Union (2022-26) and is the author of over one hundred publications on topics such as sustainability, cities, animals and Chinese tourism. He is a co-author (with John Connell and Xuesong Ding) of Chinese Tourism in Australia: Koalas, selfies and red dresses (MacMillan, 2024).
Dong Xing was a bilingual producer and presenter for ABC's Asia Pacific Newsroom and SBS Radio. He specialises in covering topics like Australia-China relations, international affairs, and CALD communities. Dong has a PhD in sustainable development and China studies from the University of Sydney, and he is finalising his Juris Doctor at UNSW.