Complex Media Ecology and Transformation of Ethnic Minority Festival Culture
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47941/ijhss.3920Keywords:
Complex Media Ecology, Festival Culture Transformation, Guangxi Ethnic MinoritiesAbstract
Purpose: Objectives of this research were to explore the challenge, analyze the transformation, and study the sustainability of ethnic minority festival culture within the complex media ecology.
Methodology: The study employed a qualitative research design, utilizing in-depth and semi-structured interviews. Primary data were collected through in-depth interviews that integrated multidisciplinary perspectives and local voices, including scholars of media ecology and digital communication, experts on Guangxi ethnic minorities, local sages, festival organizers operating across online and offline contexts, and Guangxi residents. Supplementary data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with Chinese younger generation. Thematic analysis was conducted, drawing upon theoretical frameworks of complex media ecology and traditional festival transformation, and applied comprehensively across the dataset.
Findings: The findings were that ethnic minority festival culture in Guangxi, have faced three major challenges; originality recognition of new generation, intangible cultural-identity retention, and the youth’s participation, complex media ecology has the festivals transformed into unstable festival typology and uneven development between visible forms and cultural meanings, leading to the tendencies in public visibility, ritual-media connection, and local continuity, and that sustainability of the festival culture depends on their efficacy in festive core value continuity, adaptability to the complexity of digital media affordance, and intergenerational participation collaborated.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: Understanding of traditional culture transformation over the complex media ecology helps ethnic minority festivals move beyond digital visibility, enabling ethnic identity persistence, strengthening community participation, and enhancing cultural communication policy and strategic planning.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Zeng Jiahao, Dr. Taksina Chai-ittipornwong, Assistant Professor Dr. Panom Wannasiri
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