Social media and digital culture between Asean and China

IN the digital era, culture is no longer simply preserved and communicated through traditional institutions such as museums, schools and mass media. Instead, social media technologies have fundamentally transformed culture into a dynamic, participatory, algorithm-driven and co-created digital phenomenon. Digital culture is increasingly shaped through continuous interactions on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, WeChat and Xiaohongshu, where governments, cultural institutions, businesses, content creators and ordinary citizens collectively produce, reinterpret and disseminate cultural knowledge. Consequently, culture is no longer viewed as static heritage but as an evolving social practice that is continuously reconstructed through digital participation.

Social media technologies also facilitate the emergence of hybrid digital cultures that transcend geographical boundaries. Digital communities centred on shared interests, including food, travel, education, fashion, gaming, language learning and the creative arts, enable users from Asean and China to exchange ideas, collaborate and adapt cultural practices into new digital expressions. Traditional festivals, cuisines, performing arts and local customs are frequently reinterpreted through memes, short-form videos, influencer collaborations and digital campaigns. These interactions illustrate that digital technologies do not merely preserve existing cultural traditions but actively reshape cultural identities through continuous cross-cultural engagement.