Performing culture at indigenous culture parks in Taiwan: Using Q method to identify the performers' subjectivities

• There are three perspectives on performing indigenous culture at culture parks in tourism research.
• Q method demonstrates how reflexive analysis can join ontological perspectives.
• Fixed ontological categories are actually porous and situational.

Performance of indigenous culture at culture parks for tourism is traditionally viewed from a modernist ontological perspective as exploitative and from a managerial perspective as the provision of a service. These views might fail to accommodate the performers' subjectivities. In this Q method study the views of the performers are identified based on a sample of 30 respondents and 42 Q sort items. Respondents were performers employed at the Indigenous Peoples Culture Park in Taiwan. The replicability of a previous Q study was tested using the same design in a different research setting. In both studies two clusters of subjectivity were found: the ‘Performers’ View’ and the ‘Instructors’ View’. Neither view conforms to the modernist or managerial perspective identified in tourism research. Instead, the reflexivity of Q suggests that in the performance of indigenous culture, these fixed ontological categories are porous and situational.