Artistic Ecocultural Communication and Environmental Governance Attitudes Among Chinese-Speaking Online Publics in the South China Sea Context: An Association-Based Study

Environmental governance increasingly requires communication that connects ecological knowledge with culturally meaningful public engagement. This cross-sectional study examines associations among the jointly operationalized local ecological knowledge/climate perception construct (LEK/CP), Artistic Ecocultural Communication (AEC), imagined regional ecocultural identity (IREI), digital platform mobilization (DPM), and environmental governance attitudes (EGA). Survey data were obtained from 400 self-selected Chinese-speaking online respondents in the South China Sea context. Dance serves only as a conceptual illustration of AEC and was not measured as a separate modality. Guided by Environmental Communication Theory, Cultural Sustainability Theory, and Social Identity Theory, the study applies hierarchical regression, structural equation modeling, and bootstrap analysis. LEK/CP, AEC, and IREI were positively associated with EGA. The AEC–IREI–EGA indirect estimate was statistically different from zero but does not establish causal mediation or temporal ordering. DPM was not independently associated with EGA, although its positive associations with AEC and IREI are consistent with its conceptualization as a perceived communication-facilitation condition. The findings apply only to this self-selected Chinese-speaking online sample and cannot be generalized to the populations of China, individual South China Sea countries or regions, or broader multilingual populations across the South China Sea littoral states. By integrating environmental cognition, cultural meaning-making, and regional ecocultural identity, the study advances a bounded, association-based account of audience perceptions and environmental governance attitudes.