Tracing transformations: a literature review of Guangdong Han Opera’s cultural mobility and adaptive characteristics

Moving beyond the sedentarist paradigm of heritage studies, this literature review reconceptualizes traditional performing arts through the theoretical lens of cultural mobility. It posits that sustainability is contingent on a form’s inherent capacity for dynamic adaptation as it traverses geographical, social, and temporal boundaries. Focusing on Guangdong Han Opera—a regional Chinese opera born from the migration of northern troupes and subsequent hybridization within Teochew and Hakka cultural milieus—this study synthesizes Chinese-language core scholarship (2000–2025) to analyze its historical trajectories, performance semiotics, and transmission ecosystems. Findings reveal the opera’s longevity as a product of strategic negotiations between transregional roots and local contexts: its historical migration was materially structured by trade networks and competitively driven artistic fusion; its performative semiotics (in vocal styles, phonology, and embodiment) encode a hybridity balancing standardized heritage with localized intelligibility; and its transmission relies on multi-scalar ecosystems encompassing local rituals, diasporic networks, and emerging digital platforms. The review’s primary theoretical contribution is the formulation of an integrative “adaptive mobility” framework that theorizes mobility and adaptation as interdependent processes. This framework challenges static preservation models, arguing instead for the nurturing of mobility-dependent evolution. The study concludes that Guangdong Han Opera exemplifies how marginalized performing arts endure not through ossification but through adaptive resilience—the continuous recalibration of cultural capital across shifting contexts. It calls for future research that centers on human agency in adaptation and for policy shifts that support enabling environments for organic, ecosystemic innovation.