Making continuity: How multiple production networks sustain Huimo as an intangible cultural heritage

Abstract

The continuity of craft-based intangible cultural heritage faces increasing challenges as production practices shift and diversify in response to contemporary demand. Tourism is often used as potential to realise the continuity but often discussed as singularity. Based on Actor–Network Theory, this study examines how continuity is sustained within multiple production networks. Drawing on multi-sited fieldwork, including interviews and observations, this study focuses on Huimo (徽墨), a traditional Chinese inkstick craft associated with Huizhou. The findings indicate that Huimo’s continuity is maintained through five interwoven production networks: recording tools, artistic media, collectables, tourist souvenirs, and tourist cultural experiences. Huimo’s materialities enable it to engage heterogeneous actors and shape these networks, sustaining diverse production realities that coexist and interact, rather than a unidirectional model of transmission. Crucially, the interplay among tourism and non-tourism related networks allows multiplicity itself to contribute to continuity. This relational approach advances understanding of heritage continuity sustained through materiality, network multiplicity, and inter-network coordination, underscoring their centrality in safeguarding strategies.