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<p>This article examines how Bai Opera (BO), a nationally listed form of intangible cultural heritage in China, is reproduced within an institutionalized professional troupe system. Drawing on 55 semi-structured interviews with troupe members, performers from related troupes, cultural officials, and audience members, and using thematic analysis informed by a Bourdieusian framework of cultural reproduction, particularly the concepts of field, capital, and habitus, the article shows that BO’s continuity depends on five interrelated mechanisms: troupe dominance within a structured field; the institutional conversion of cultural, economic, social, and symbolic capital; the uneven reproduction of professional habitus; the regulation of creative practice through policy- and project-based production; and the fragmented generation of public recognition. The findings suggest that the continuity of BO depends on a fragile and continually negotiated process of cultural reproduction. Heritage recognition and transmission both matter, but neither is sufficient on its own to sustain the practice. By focusing on BO as a minority, place-based, and institutionally concentrated opera form, the article clarifies how continuity is reproduced when community-based transmission weakens and institutional mediation through the troupe becomes dominant.</p>

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Cultural Reproduction in an Institutionalized Troupe System: The Case of Bai Opera in China

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年5月7日

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  • Zhongyan Yang,
  • Dianlei Wu

摘要

This article examines how Bai Opera (BO), a nationally listed form of intangible cultural heritage in China, is reproduced within an institutionalized professional troupe system. Drawing on 55 semi-structured interviews with troupe members, performers from related troupes, cultural officials, and audience members, and using thematic analysis informed by a Bourdieusian framework of cultural reproduction, particularly the concepts of field, capital, and habitus, the article shows that BO’s continuity depends on five interrelated mechanisms: troupe dominance within a structured field; the institutional conversion of cultural, economic, social, and symbolic capital; the uneven reproduction of professional habitus; the regulation of creative practice through policy- and project-based production; and the fragmented generation of public recognition. The findings suggest that the continuity of BO depends on a fragile and continually negotiated process of cultural reproduction. Heritage recognition and transmission both matter, but neither is sufficient on its own to sustain the practice. By focusing on BO as a minority, place-based, and institutionally concentrated opera form, the article clarifies how continuity is reproduced when community-based transmission weakens and institutional mediation through the troupe becomes dominant.