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.