Tourism livelihood transition and rhythmic sustainability: The case of the Reindeer Evenki in China

We employ Lefevbre's theory of rhythmanalysis to investigate how an indigenous tribe's livelihood rhythm has transformed with modernization and settlement in China and the paradox they are facing to achieve a sustainable tourism livelihood. Reindeer Evenki are evolving from traditional hunter herders into herders and tourism operators. The challenge in maintaining tourism livelihood involves the different types of livelihood arrhythmia. The Reindeer Evenki developed certain livelihood rhythm dressage strategies to achieve sustainable tourism livelihoods, although this is accompanied by threats to other livelihoods. Hence, to understand sustainable tourism livelihood, especially the different temporary modes of sustainability in livelihood portfolios, we propose extending the concept of tourism livelihood sustainability to monorhythmic livelihood sustainability and polyrhythmic livelihood sustainability.