Stakeholder Conflicts and Labor Alienation in ICH Commodification: The Case of Zhuang Brocade

Abstract

With the twin pressures of modern commercial logic and digital technological rationality, the transmission of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is in a dichotomy between 'authenticity preservation' and 'market survival'. Taking the traditional Chinese intangible cultural heritage Zhuang Brocade as an example, this study presents both the Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) model and stakeholder theory. In combination with semi-structured interviews and NVivo 15 qualitative analysis, it analyses the cognitive fragmentation and stakeholder conflicts in the world of five major stakeholder groups that all have different ecological roles: grassroots weavers, core inheritors, enterprise managers, university scholars, and digital designers in the current process of transformation. In particular, it finds: First, in the evolution of the resource system, the shift away from traditional handicrafts and towards mass production has caused a deep ontological crisis in the artisans. Second, in the process of symbolic meaning, the elite class is dominating the aesthetic reconstruction of traditional patterns and the masses of people become so alienated from production on an assembly line and lose their meaning. Third, at the macro-governance level, policy dividends are severely intercepted at the upper levels, failing to produce an effective trickle-down effect, which leaves traditional artisans mired in micro-level livelihood dilemmas and intergenerational transmission ruptures. From a micro-empirical perspective, this study enriches the cutting-edge theoretical debates on heritage commodification and cultural labor alienation, and provides actionable policy implications for balancing the commercial vitality of cultural heritage with the subjectivity of grassroots laborers.