From Symbolic Recognition to Limited Public Visibility: Field Isolation and Capital Conversion in the Digital Transformation of Jialu Oil-Paper Umbrellas
Using Bourdieu's framework, this paper analyzes how the Jialu oil-paper umbrella's national ICH status generates symbolic capital that remains isolated from economic and digital success due to conflicting field logics, arguing that digital transformation must serve as a mediating space for capital conversion rather than merely a technical tool for promotion.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
Imagine a world where a craft has been officially honored by the government, recognized as a treasure of national history, and celebrated for its beauty. Yet, despite this high status, the average person walking down the street has never heard of it, tourists pass it by without a second glance, and it remains invisible in the digital spaces where we now spend so much of our time. This is the puzzle facing the Jialu oil-paper umbrella, a traditional craft from Wuyuan County in China. To understand why a celebrated object can remain so hidden, researchers turned to a way of thinking developed by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. He suggested that society is made up of different "fields," or social worlds, each with its own set of rules and what it considers valuable. In the world of the craftsman, value comes from the time spent, the quality of the materials, and the skill of the hand. In the world of the tourist or the online shopper, value is found in price, convenience, and how shareable an experience is. The researchers asked a simple but profound question: why does the value recognized in the craft world fail to translate into the value recognized in the market or on the internet?
The study focused on the Jialu oil-paper umbrella, a national-level intangible cultural heritage item. These umbrellas are not merely tools for rain; they are the result of a painstaking process involving over one hundred steps, from selecting specific bamboo to applying layers of tung oil and paper. The people who make them, the inheritors of this tradition, view their work through a lens of deep respect for history, material integrity, and the responsibility of passing the skill to the next generation. However, the researchers found that this deep, internal appreciation does not automatically spill over into the wider world. To find out why, the team traveled to the village where the umbrellas are made, spoke with the master craftsman, and observed how the umbrellas were displayed in local shops. They also gathered the opinions of 133 people online and 100 tourists visiting the area, asking them what they knew about the umbrellas, what they would pay for them, and how they preferred to learn about such traditions.
The results revealed a clear disconnect, a kind of isolation between the different worlds that surround the umbrella. In the field of the craft itself, the object is a masterpiece of human skill and cultural memory. But in the field of tourism and commerce, it is often seen simply as a souvenir or a decorative item. The researchers discovered that while the government had granted the umbrella a prestigious title, this official stamp did not make the public aware of it. Tourists who visited the area often had no idea they were looking at a national heritage item, and many online users had never heard of it at all. The problem was not a lack of quality or history; the umbrellas were genuine and the history was rich. The problem was that the language of the craftsperson—talking about bamboo selection, durability, and historical lineage—did not match the language of the consumer, who was looking for a good price, a nice design, or a fun photo opportunity. The two groups were speaking different dialects of value, and because of this, the cultural worth of the umbrella was getting stuck in the craft world, unable to cross over into the market or the digital sphere.
This mismatch in how different people see the same object explains why the umbrella remains obscure. The inheritors are driven by a habitus, a set of ingrained habits and values, that prioritizes tradition and the slow, careful work of making. The tourists and online users, however, operate with a different set of priorities, looking for immediate experiences, aesthetic appeal, and practical use. When these two ways of seeing do not align, the cultural capital—the honor and history attached to the umbrella—cannot be converted into economic capital, such as sales, or social capital, such as widespread fame. The study suggests that simply putting the umbrella online or making a digital video is not enough if the underlying disconnect remains. The researchers found that people were actually very interested in the craft if it could be presented in a way that bridged this gap. They expressed a desire to see the hidden steps of the process, such as the threading of the ribs or the painting of the canopy, through digital tools like short videos, augmented reality, or interactive apps.
The paper concludes that the solution lies in using digital space not just as a tool for showing pictures, but as a meeting place where these different worlds can reconnect. By using technology to make the invisible labor of the craftsman visible and understandable to the public, the digital field can act as a bridge. It can translate the deep, technical knowledge of the craft into a form that tourists and online users can appreciate and share. The study does not claim that technology will solve every problem or that the umbrella will suddenly become a global bestseller. Instead, it suggests that the path forward involves understanding that digital transformation is a social process. It requires changing how the value of the craft is communicated so that the honor of the past can be felt and understood by the people of the present. The Jialu oil-paper umbrella has the history and the skill; what it needs now is a way to let the rest of the world see it clearly.
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