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.

People-to-people interaction represents another defining characteristic of digital culture. Students, tourists, entrepreneurs, expatriates and overseas communities increasingly share their daily experiences through social media, documenting cultural adaptation, education, travel, local customs and intercultural friendships. These personal narratives offer authentic insights into everyday life that complement official cultural diplomacy initiatives. In recent years, this phenomenon has been further amplified through large-scale digital engagement across Asean and China, particularly during initiatives such as the Asean–China Year of People-to-People Exchanges (2024–2025), where participants actively shared cultural experiences via short-form videos, livestreams and travel vlogs on platforms such as TikTok, WeChat, Xiaohongshu and YouTube.

These digital narratives frequently circulate beyond national boundaries through algorithmic recommendation systems, allowing everyday experiences to become transnational cultural content. Emerging technologies further accelerate the transformation of digital culture. Artificial intelligence, automated translation, personalised recommendation systems, virtual exhibitions, augmented reality experiences and digital content creation tools enable cultural knowledge to be produced, translated and disseminated more efficiently across linguistic and geographical boundaries. These technologies increase accessibility to cultural resources while encouraging greater participation among younger generations, who increasingly engage with culture through digital platforms rather than conventional channels.

The transformation of cultural heritage provides a clear illustration of this digital shift. Heritage sites such as Borobudur Temple, Angkor Wat, George Town, the Historic City of Melaka, the Great Wall of China and numerous other cultural landmarks are increasingly experienced through virtual tours, immersive videos, digital archives, interactive exhibitions and social media campaigns. Rather than serving solely as historical monuments, these heritage resources become interactive digital experiences that encourage users to engage, share and reinterpret cultural knowledge collectively. Consequently, heritage preservation evolves from an institutional responsibility into a collaborative digital practice involving governments, cultural organisations, content creators and the wider public.

Regional cooperation between Asean and China further strengthens the development of this digital cultural ecosystem. Initiatives promoting collaboration in digital education, tourism, innovation, the creative industries and people-to-people exchanges provide opportunities for institutions and communities to produce and exchange cultural content through digital platforms. Social media amplifies these initiatives by extending participation beyond physical events, allowing cultural engagement to continue through online communities, digital storytelling and cross-border collaboration. This demonstrates that digital technologies are not merely supporting cultural exchange but are actively reshaping the mechanisms through which regional cultural identities are constructed.

Despite these opportunities, the rapid transformation of digital culture also presents significant challenges. Algorithmic bias, misinformation, cultural stereotyping, digital inequality and ethical concerns surrounding artificial intelligence may influence how cultures are represented and perceived online. The commercial priorities of digital platforms may also privilege popular or viral content over culturally authentic representations. These challenges highlight the importance of digital literacy, ethical content creation, cultural sensitivity and responsible platform governance to ensure that digital technologies promote inclusive and respectful intercultural dialogue.

Recent initiatives led by UNESCO in 2026 further illustrate how digital technologies and artificial intelligence are transforming cultural engagement on a regional scale. The TechCul Dialogues: AI and the Future of Culture in East and Southeast Asia, launched in March 2026, is a UNESCO regional initiative designed to foster dialogue, collaboration and policy innovation at the intersection of artificial intelligence and culture. Through a ten-month series of thematic webinars, the initiative brings together practitioners, researchers, policymakers, cultural institutions, creative professionals and private-sector stakeholders to explore the impact of AI and digital transformation across areas such as tangible and intangible cultural heritage, museums and collections, film, audiovisual media and the creative industries. This initiative demonstrates how emerging technologies can reshape the ways culture is created, preserved, shared and experienced, while also encouraging cross-border knowledge exchange and regional collaboration. It provides a valuable model for Asean and China to strengthen cooperation in digital cultural heritage, cultural tourism and creative industries by integrating artificial intelligence, digital storytelling, social media and other emerging technologies.

Overall, social media technologies have transformed culture from a static body of traditions into a continuously evolving digital ecosystem characterised by participation, collaboration, algorithmic influence and cultural co-creation. Within the Asean–China context, digital platforms enable diverse communities to preserve cultural heritage, negotiate cultural identities, generate new cultural practices and strengthen intercultural understanding through sustained digital interaction. Rather than functioning merely as communication tools, social media technologies have become powerful cultural infrastructures that redefine how culture is produced, experienced and shared in the digital age.

Dr. Cokki is an Associate Professor at Tarumanagara University. The views expressed here are entirely the writer’s own.

The SEARCH Scholar Series is a social responsibility programme jointly organised by the Southeast Asia Research Centre for Humanities (SEARCH) and Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TAR UMT).