Sustaining minoritized culture, community and well-being through online traditional music making: A case study of Bai urban migrants in China

Mass urban migration often engenders major sustainable development challenges, profoundly Mass urban migration often engenders major sustainable development challenges, profoundly affecting people’s well-being. As Waldron argues, online spaces can become vital forums for community music making. This study examines the online traditional music-making activities of the Bai ethnic minority group in the face of accelerated urban migration since the 2000s. Specifically, I explore the Bai people’s use of WeChat and Douyin (TikTok in China) for musical activity, drawing from interviews and online questionnaires conducted with villagers who remain ‘at home’ and migrants who have moved to cities. Together, these sources demonstrate that migration adds pressure and loneliness to Bai people, also posing significant challenges for the sustainability of Bai music. Informants pinpointed that online Bai folksong singing had relieved their negative emotions, with online platforms becoming crucial loci of musical engagement since 2018. Meanwhile, online Bai musical activities have sparked a boom of Bai antiphonal singing activities in the real world, as enthusiasts are motivated by their online interactions. Accordingly, this study advocates online platforms as empowering tools for promoting well-being and sustainable cultural development, enabling peripheral fragmented groups to continue engaging in what Schippers calls the ‘organic’ processes of community music despite major social change.