Abstract
Digital platforms are widely celebrated as a rescue mechanism for intangible cultural heritage (ICH), yet their causal effects and underlying mechanisms remain under-examined. This study challenges the prevailing assumption that digitalization delivers rapid, universal heritage protection by investigating two iconic traditional drum performance forms in Shanxi Province, northern China: Linfen Weifeng Gonggu and Yuncheng Jiangzhou Gule. We employ a mixed-methods design combining (1) a difference-in-differences (DID) analysis on a 13-year city-level panel (2010–2022, 11 prefecture-level cities), exploiting the 2019 short-video platform explosion as an exogenous shock, comparing the two treatment cities (Linfen and Yuncheng) with nine control cities across Shanxi Province, (2) 699 valid audience survey responses, and (3) systematic content analysis of 50 short videos. Contrary to popular expectations, no statistically significant short-term effect of digital activation is found on overall city-level retail consumption (DID coefficient = −0.024, p = 0.56), indicating limited short-run macroeconomic impacts. However, micro-level evidence reveals a robust dissemination–authenticity co-perception mechanism: audience exposure to short-video heritage content is associated with significantly higher perceived dissemination breadth (Cronbach’s α = 0.825) and stronger perceived authenticity erosion, and these two perceptions are strongly positively correlated (r = 0.755, p < 0.001), together with stronger heritage travel intention (r = 0.623, p < 0.001). These findings support a three-dimensional conditionality framework: digital heritage effects are temporally conditional—cumulative macroeconomic returns are not observed within the study window, while cultural-level changes precede measurable economic outcomes—spatially uneven, and normatively contingent, challenging simplistic binary narratives of either digital salvation or cultural dilution.