Cultural Domestication Is the Safeguarding: Senior Dixi Inheritors’ Social Media Practices for Intangible Cultural Heritage

Forces of modernization and globalization threaten the survival and continuity of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Among studies on ICH digitalization, the voices of inheritors, particularly the elderly facing the challenges of aging and death, have not been fully heard in shaping digital media uses for ICH safeguarding. Situating technology domestication within ICH, this qualitative study reveals a nuanced understanding of how Chinese senior Dixi inheritors integrate social media into their daily ICH practices, particularly as a form of culture-making in multifaceted ICH safeguarding. Findings indicate that the digital platform, WeChat, affords a digital community alive with cultural identifiers of Anshun Dixi and Tunpu culture through a multidimensional domesticating process. In ICH safeguarding, this online space is open to changes, (re)shaped within how local communities create their shared cultural heritage, identities and a sense of belonging. Built upon the cultural-communal domestication enabled by WeChat, we argue that cultural domestication is a significant constituent of ICH safeguarding, enlightening a more adaptive approach to the digitalization of ICH.