This ethnographic PhD project involves five months of participant observation in a national park on the China–Myanmar border and 39 semi-structured interviews with clan members. It addresses two research questions: What does a liveable life mean for villagers working in horse-riding tourism in rural China? How do rural–urban inequalities shape individuals’ evaluations of themselves, significant others, and non-human others?
This presentation shares emerging findings from the data collection phase. First, most participants, predominantly men in their 30s to 60s, were formerly peasants or migrant workers in construction or factories. Due to precarious work conditions, family responsibilities, and the rise of local tourism, they have returned to work at a nearby tourist site. Second, the horse-riding cooperative follows a ‘one horse per family’ policy. Each family takes turns leading their horse for tourists, with daily income divided among participants. Third, although horses are viewed both as tools for income and as sentient beings, there remains an absence of clear categories to define these human-horse relationships.
Overall, the project contributes empirical data and theoretical insights into the moral and emotional dimensions of rural–urban inequalities through the lens of human–animal relationships.
![Queer(y)ing Human–Horse Relationships in Rural Yunnan Tourism [PGR]](https://img.evbuc.com/https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.evbuc.com%2Fimages%2F1076484453%2F287584058748%2F1%2Foriginal.20250718-152945?w=940&auto=format%2Ccompress&q=75&sharp=10&s=b41e90da71f7906e1b58944544edd922)