The Commercialization Of Intangible Cultural Heritage And Its Impact On Communities From A Translocal Perspective

Intangible cultural heritage is an important symbol of a country and a nation’s historical and cultural achievements,and an important component of excellent traditional culture,intimately related to people’s daily life practices,and has historical,cultural,economic,and other values.In the context of economic and cultural globalization,the transmission,protection,production,and consumption of intangible cultural heritage have broken through geographical restrictions and have been recombined in translocal networks,becoming cultural issues that go beyond locality.Its commodification has deepened.The commodification of intangible cultural heritage is one of the most significant issues in the protection and utilization of cultural heritage,but most studies have given less consideration to the spatiality and mobility of intangible cultural heritage,examining it only as an outcome and addressing the effects of commodification in both negative and positive terms.This study places the commodification of intangible cultural heritage within a translocal network structure from a dynamic developmental perspective,taking the national intangible cultural heritage project of ‘gambiered Canton gauze dyeing and finishing technique’ declared by Shunde District,Foshan City,Guangdong Province as a typical case,and selects Lunjiao street,Hantang village in Gaoyao district,Zhaoqing city,and Sima village in Wanxiu district,Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as case sites,and dividing the case sites into two categories of localities: The first category is the declared site of‘gambiered Canton gauze dyeing and finishing technique’,and the second category is the rural community where the dyeing and finishing industry is undertaken.Based on a translocal theoretical perspective,primary data are obtained through field surveys and interviews,combined with secondary data such as books,online texts and literature,and qualitative research methods such as actor network theory and discourse analysis are applied to explore how different actors in the above three case sites participate in the commodification process of gambiered Canton gauze dyeing and finishing and the community effects of commodification.This study found that:(1)Local governments,local elites,workers,fabric wholesalers,and clothing traders carried out a series of social practices around the commodification of gambiered Canton gauze dyeing and finishing,using their subjective initiative to call on their own resources to promote the commodification process and keep it in a dynamic developmental process.(2)Human actors embed themselves in the translocal network of the commodification of ‘gambiered Canton gauze dyeing and finishing’ through their subjective initiative.Influenced by human actors,non-human actors also exert initiative,and with the flow of logistics technology,they promote the development of the commodification of gambiered Canton gauze.(3)There were differences in the development of the gambiered Canton gauze industry in different case sites,and the degree of impact on the three aspects of livelihood patterns,intangible cultural heritage identity and environmental perception in the different local communities.In general,the commodification of gambiered Canton gauze dyeing and finishing has enriched the production and lifestyle of different local communities,increased livelihood income and brought about regional economic development;effectively enhanced local cultural identity and cultural self-confidence,and promoted the transmission and development of intangible cultural heritage;improved the production and living environment,giving rise to new industrial structures,consumption concepts and production and lifestyle,etc.The frequent movement of people has formed a new type of business relationship linked by work.This study adopts a translocal perspective to analyze the process of different subjects participating in the commercialization of ‘gambiered Canton gauze dyeing and finishing’ and its impact on the livelihood patterns,identity and environmental perceptions of different local communities.Theoretically,this study provides a new perspective for the research on the commodification of intangible cultural heritage,enhances the understanding of the complexity and conflict in the ‘social-space’ system in the commercialization of intangible cultural heritage in academic and practical fields;practically,it clarifies the participation of local communities in the commodification process of intangible cultural heritage,emphasizes the subjectivity of local communities,calls on rural actors to actively participate in market operations,and provides management thinking for the creative transformation and innovative development of intangible cultural heritage and how the commodification of intangible cultural heritage promotes rural revitalization.