Communication Pathways of Intangible Cultural Heritage under the Lens of Symbolic Interactionism—A Study on the Dissemination of Xunpu Women’s Floral Hair Tradition on TikTok

非物质文化遗产如蟳埔簪花在抖音等平台上获得了更为广泛的传播机会。短视频在促进传播的同时，其碎片化特性和过度商业化倾向也使得传统文化内涵在传播过程中容易被削弱。本文旨在结合符号互动理论，探讨抖音平台在推广与传播蟳埔女簪花这一非物质文化遗产(以下简称“非遗”)中所扮演的角色及其现状。蟳埔女簪花作为泉州独特的民俗现象，近年来在抖音平台的助力下迅速走红，吸引了国内外众多游客的关注与参与。通过分析抖音平台上的相关话题、视频内容、用户互动以及线下影响等方面，本文揭示了蟳埔女簪花如何在短时间内实现广泛传播，并探讨了其背后的文化意义、商业机遇以及面临的挑战。研究发现，抖音平台不仅为蟳埔女簪花提供了展示窗口，还促进了文化的传承与创新，但同时也存在商业化过度、文化内涵淡化等问题。因此，本文提出了一系列建议，以期在保护非遗文化内核的基础上，实现其可持续发展。Intangible cultural heritage such as the Xunpu Women’s Floral Hair Tradition has secured broader dissemination opportunities on short-video platforms like TikTok. While these media facilitate rapid diffusion, their inherently fragmented format and pronounced commercial orientation risk diluting the tradition’s deeper cultural meanings. This study employs symbolic interactionism to examine the role and current status of TikTok in promoting and transmitting the Xunpu Women’s Floral Hair Tradition as a distinctive form of intangible cultural heritage. Originating in Quanzhou, the Xunpu Women’s Floral Hair Tradition has, under TikTok’s influence, achieved viral popularity and attracted considerable domestic and international visitor engagement. Through an analysis of platform-wide topics, video content, user interactions, and offline impacts, this paper elucidates how the hairpin tradition attained widespread exposure in a short timeframe and explores its embedded cultural significance, emerging commercial prospects, and attendant challenges. Findings indicate that, although TikTok furnishes a valuable showcase that fosters both preservation and innovation, excessive commercialization and format fragmentation undermine the heritage’s substantive essence. Accordingly, the study offers a series of recommendations aimed at safeguarding the cultural core of the Xunpu Women’s Floral Hair Tradition while promoting its sustainable development.