Digital Tools and Creative Engagement in Sustainable Blended Fine Art Learning: A Conceptual Framework for Chinese Higher Education

This integrative conceptual review develops a testable framework for explaining creative engagement in sustainable blended fine art learning in Chinese higher education. It is a non-systematic review designed for theory building rather than exhaustive evidence aggregation. A transparent search and synthesis process brought together 52 sources published primarily between 2000 and September 2026, supplemented by seminal earlier works and Chinese policy documents. Six strands were integrated: technology adoption, blended inquiry, student and creative engagement, digital inequality, flow and achievement emotion, and AI-mediated authorship. The framework distinguishes socioeconomic status from meaningful accessibility and treats purposeful digital tool usage as a behavioural antecedent rather than an engagement outcome. It proposes two context-sensitive psychological mechanisms: techno-aesthetic flow, an absorbed alignment between tool action and artistic intention; and attribution anxiety, concern about authorship, originality, ownership, and evaluation in AI-assisted work. Eight propositions connect structural opportunity, tool use, these mechanisms, and cognitive, emotional, and behavioural creative engagement. Chinese national digitalisation, regulated generative-AI services, regional and institutional capacity, and assessment rules are specified as contextual boundary conditions. The framework contributes by moving beyond adoption-centred models toward an equity-aware, studio-sensitive account of participation. It also defines construct boundaries, suggests measurement routes, and identifies educational, institutional, and environmental implications for sustainable implementation.