Abstract
The handicraft of China’sintangibleculturalheritageareatrisk ofbeing lost due to multiple factors. Thisstudy isset China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) policies as the research background. Based on Bourdieu’s field theory, it explores the reconstruction of the traditional handicraft field. The research examines how cultural capital conversion shapes the interaction between ICH inheritance and regional culture. This study selects the Zhaoqing Duan inkstone handicraft as a case study. It combines the methods of historical anthropology and fieldwork. The research traces the history of inkstone mining and the craftsman cultivation system in the Xijiang River area. It also analyzes the field's evolution through material practices and institutional changes. Using a three dimensional framework, the study tracks the artisans’ conversion of cultural, social, and economic capital. Furthermore, it deconstructs the cross regional transmission of Lingnan's “scholar's studio culture” during the industrialization of ICH in Guangdong. The results show that policy driven field reconstruction transformed the Duan ink stone handicraft, whichevolvedfromaregionalskillsystem into a national cultural symbol. A coupling mechanism of “standardized craft aesthetics and local image construction” formed in this process. This significantly strengthened regional cultural identity. Meanwhile, artisans achieve a dialectical unity between “preservation” and “innovation” through capital conversion strategies. The essence of their design practice is the tangible representation of cultural capital reproduction. This study’s contribution is a new theoretical perspective for understanding the cultural governance effects of ICH protection policies. It reveals the interplay among material, institutional, and symbolic elements during the modernization of handicraft traditions.
Keywords
Fieldtheory; Intangibleculturalheritage(ICH); Productapplication; Duaninkstone
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.629
Citation
Liang, T., Li, N., Cai, R.,and Chen, J.(2025) Empirical Analysis of the Transformation in the Inheritance Field of Intangible Cultural Heritage Skills from Cultural Capital to Product Application: A Case Study of Zhaoqing Duan Inkstone in China, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.629
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 11 - Culture and Craft Design for Regenerative Practices
Empirical Analysis of the Transformation in the Inheritance Field of Intangible Cultural Heritage Skills from Cultural Capital to Product Application: A Case Study of Zhaoqing Duan Inkstone in China
The handicraft of China’sintangibleculturalheritageareatrisk ofbeing lost due to multiple factors. Thisstudy isset China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) policies as the research background. Based on Bourdieu’s field theory, it explores the reconstruction of the traditional handicraft field. The research examines how cultural capital conversion shapes the interaction between ICH inheritance and regional culture. This study selects the Zhaoqing Duan inkstone handicraft as a case study. It combines the methods of historical anthropology and fieldwork. The research traces the history of inkstone mining and the craftsman cultivation system in the Xijiang River area. It also analyzes the field's evolution through material practices and institutional changes. Using a three dimensional framework, the study tracks the artisans’ conversion of cultural, social, and economic capital. Furthermore, it deconstructs the cross regional transmission of Lingnan's “scholar's studio culture” during the industrialization of ICH in Guangdong. The results show that policy driven field reconstruction transformed the Duan ink stone handicraft, whichevolvedfromaregionalskillsystem into a national cultural symbol. A coupling mechanism of “standardized craft aesthetics and local image construction” formed in this process. This significantly strengthened regional cultural identity. Meanwhile, artisans achieve a dialectical unity between “preservation” and “innovation” through capital conversion strategies. The essence of their design practice is the tangible representation of cultural capital reproduction. This study’s contribution is a new theoretical perspective for understanding the cultural governance effects of ICH protection policies. It reveals the interplay among material, institutional, and symbolic elements during the modernization of handicraft traditions.