From Elders to Peers: Stance-Taking and the Interface Bias of Chinese Cultural Memory among Youth in Taiwan, China

Abstract

The generational continuity of Chinese cultural memory among youth in Taiwan, China runs largely through digital platforms, yet research has asked mainly how culture becomes easier to reach, not whether young people can take up what reaches them. This study asks what young people do with the cultural symbols handed down by elders and institutions once those symbols arrive on a platform, and how this rewriting reshapes generational transmission. Five public fragments from YouTube, Threads and Instagram (2024-2026) were analysed by reflexive thematic analysis, with Du Bois's stance triangle as the analytic tool and generational transliteration as the object. Three practices of stance-taking recur: re-narrating tradition as a verifiable, hands-on project; negotiating cultural genealogy through everyday taxonomy; and reworking a festival symbol into a reproducible, shootable recipe. They share one rule: symbols are kept while their use changes, and authority over memory is partly transferred from elders and institutions to platform visibility and peer feedback. The point where this rewriting happens is conceptualised as an interface, which is not a neutral conduit but carries a structural bias, amplifying what can be visualised and imitated while forms of memory dependent on bodily co-presence, oral ritual detail for instance, fall silent. Practice should therefore shift from supplying content toward keeping open interfaces that young people can take up themselves. The study is exploratory and awaits systematic sampling.