Backpacking with a suitcase - is this real backpacking?

this is along the lines of the difference between travellers and tourists. It can often be defined as where they keep their heads...

Well maybe not in the most literal sense, but IMHO you can backpack with any bag (backpack, suitcase, duffle bag, tote bag) as long as you're prepared to carry it around.

The dictionaries seem to take the more literal definition, but that also means they would classify someone who hikes with a backpack as a backpacker.

how to pack a suitcase on your back?

Of course they can be backpackers. The people who used to travel with suitcases now use backpacks, even though they don't need them. These flashpackers stay in hotels instead of guesthouses and never really need a backpack anyway. It's all about style really.

Yes...like #3.If you can somehow strap your suitcase to your back,then you are a backpacker ;-)

Yes you can be a backpacker and travel with a suitecase - though you may find that at times it's not all that practical.

Actually, after 15 or so years of backpacking with a backpack I'm now thinking of buying a suitecase to use for some shorter trips where I know I won't be really doing that much walking around with my luggage. Though I still have the backpack ready for when I think I may need to walk some distance, possibly along dirt streets/cobbled streets, beaches... etc. Though whenever I next go on a long trip (who knows when that will be) It'll be with a backpack, just a lot more practical - though I'm not convinced by the backpack with wheels.

I think so! I think you should bring along with you whatever you need and carry it however you like - it is all about your mentality!

Toad...I had a try of those backpacks with the wheels..(just walking around the shop in it-I didn't go as far as buying one)...

Its just not right.....maybe in another 20 or 30 years ;-)

It'll be interesting to see how much luggage will have changed in 30 years time. If you think back to 30 years ago the basic luggage was the same as now yet it has evolved a fair bit. Probably backpacks will be made of some ultra light Kevlar type material which can't be slashed but lets your back breathe and suitecases will still have wheels but will have some kind of remote control so that you don't even have to pull them around, they just follow you.