In the first two decades of the 21st century, two innovations – the motorbike and the smartphone – transformed the lifestyle and traditional customs of the Baiku Yao people living in a remote mountainous area of southwestern China. In particular, the widespread adoption of smartphones, along with the prevalence of social media they brought, provided the Baiku Yao1 with a platform to amplify their own voices, showcase their culture and connect with and learn from the outside world.

Meanwhile, with the emergence and widespread use of social media in the Baiku Yao community, various different forms of representation and self-representation (Hall 1997) have surfaced, addressing questions such as ‘Who are we?’, ‘Who are the Baiku Yao?’, ‘Who defines the Baiku Yao?’, and ‘What are the characteristics of Baiku Yao culture?’. The power dynamics behind these narrative constructions have also been adjusted and reorganised. This chapter aims to explore how social media influences the construction of memory among the Baiku Yao by examining how they and their intangible cultural heritage (ICH) are represented by both external parties and the Baiku Yao themselves. Specifically, it seeks to investigate how the Baiku Yao utilise social media to amplify their voices in memory construction, thereby defending or advocating for their community interests. The study of interactions, conflicts, negotiations, assembling and reassembling among these multiple state and non-state curatorial actors on and about social media forms the foundational basis for the concept of ‘the digital memory assemblage’ that I will sketch in the following sections.