Context (archaeology)

Linguistics

Philosophy

Psychoanalysis

Ecology

Biology

Exhibition

Transformative learning

Semiotics

Tourism

Archaeology

Pedagogy

Visual arts

Anthropology

Economic geography

Identity (music)

Aesthetics

Psychology

Reproduction

Politics

Geography

The Symbolic

Political science

Sociology

Representation (politics)

Symbol (formal)

Space (punctuation)

Media studies

History

Tourism Management

This study presents discourse and semiotic analyses to understand tourists' identity construction in the Min-tai-yuan Museum (hereafter, the Museum). To explore the extensive and profound connotations of the Museum's exhibitions, the study adopts mimesis as an interpretive framework to reveal visitors' transformative change from physical to symbolic space, and to decode identity construction through interactions between the symbolic (conceptual) vis-à-vis the physical (real). As a medium for the representation of place, the Museum is found to perform as a system of reproduction that is arranged around a series of historical events and abstracted as a cultural symbol. Implications of the study for museum tourism management are reflected in the context of cultural representation and reproduction.

Constructing identity in space and place: Semiotic and discourse analyses of museum tourism