Heritage-Making as Cultural Interweaving: A Processual Model from a Transnational Rural Hakka Village

In many rural heritage settings, continuity depends less on static preservation than on the ongoing negotiation of space, governance, and cultural practice. This dynamic is particularly evident in transnational Hakka villages, where lineage networks, migration histories, and everyday adaptation continuously reshape heritage in practice. Existing research, however, often treats material conservation, governance arrangements, and cultural meaning as separate analytical domains, limiting its ability to explain the complexity of lived heritage processes and reducing its relevance for practical heritage management. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Zhongchuan Village, Fujian Province, China, this study employs semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and qualitative thematic analysis to examine how heritage continuity is sustained and transformed through everyday social practice. The findings identify three interrelated dimensions of heritage-making: material–technical adaptation, social–institutional governance, and symbolic–cultural meaning. Based on these interactions, the study develops the Three-Dimensional Cultural Interweaving Model (3D-CCM) as an integrated analytical framework for understanding dynamic heritage processes. By connecting these dimensions, 3D-CCM highlights how rural heritage continuity emerges through the interaction of architectural adaptation, governance negotiation, and cultural interpretation. The study further shows that heritage-making in Zhongchuan Village is shaped not only by local practices and institutional arrangements, but also by ongoing connections within transnational Hakka networks. These findings contribute to current discussions on sustainable rural heritage by emphasizing the importance of community participation, adaptive reuse, and cross-regional cultural relationships.