Abstract
Qishan is a small town that features bananas as its major agricultural production during the Japanese occupation. Banana industry in Qishan has developed for one century, and created a successful record in exportation. Therefore, Qishan wins “banana town” and “banana kingdom” in reputation. Bananas shapes the landscape and people’s life in Qishan, which becomes the core of this research. The study starts from the most important banana production settlement in Qishan – Xizhou, to discuss and write with the concept of landscape and community in anthropology. Banana production and business happen in Xizhou every single day, and form its unique industrial landscape. During the process of exploring the landscape, the presence of landscape not only displays the development of bananas in the past, but also reveals the dilemma of industry today. Among people living in the landscape, such as banana farmers in different generations, producers and experts, banana farmers and businessmen, distinguish the community and show their thinking difference regarding the banana industry. This part displays the unique local life with bananas in Qishan. Recently, bananas become a local symbol and tourism resource in Qishan. By integrating into various activities and spaces, Qishan forms a banana-themed tourism landscape, and even become a part of cultural consumption. This paper depicts bananas as a commodity, from the simple production and selling, to show the close relationship with Qishan; on the other hand, it points out that bananas are used as the theme of tourism development and demonstrate the symbolic significance based on century of production history and local life. Through tourism landscape, Qishan claims its uniqueness with bananas to the outside world. In addition, through tourism activities, bananas have become cultural resources that people in Qishan can share, and a basis of imagined communities.