Constructing Pastoral China in Li Ziqi’s Intangible Cultural Heritage and Traditional Craft Videos

Abstract

Although rural images and female microcelebrity of Li Ziqi have been investigated, investigation on the connection between craft processes and domestic uses demands detailed textual study. This article examines the value of “traditional making” in the creation of an idealised image of “Pastoral China” in five Douyin videos. It takes a descriptive and interpretive approach to visual text analysis to link observations with cultural analysis, based on Stuart Hall's constructionist model of representation. The operational framework is based on the selection, emphasis, organisation and exclusion. The corpus encompasses heritage activities and traditional crafts, but does not assume that all activities are formally recognized as a heritage project. Rural environment is characterized by skilled production which is identified as a bridge between rural environment and valued outcomes. The repetition of the carving foregrounds practical knowledge, while the changes of the domestic space and the silk-quilt production relate competence with the provision of the household. The relationships provide evidence of the resourcefulness and cultural continuity of the rural. They reveal ambivalence in the productive activity of women and the focus on domestic roles. The interpretation of exclusion is not as the disappearance of modern production conditions, but as the limits of the craft-centred account. The contribution is the bounded explanation of the use of useful objects in organising a desirable rural cultural image. Audience effects and economic self-sufficiency are not ascertained. Popularity based selection, the five videos scope and the lack of a time-coded transcript reduces the generalisability and sequence level auditability. Keywords: Li Ziqi, intangible cultural heritage, pastoral China, visual representation, traditional craftsmanship.