Bricolage Under Constraint: Community-Led Regional Branding through the Zuojhen Lantern Festival, Taiwan
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Regional branding in peripheral areas often emerges from necessity rather than strategic design. This study investigates the Zuojhen Lantern Festival (ZLF) in Tainan, Taiwan, to examine how bricolage—the creative recombination of available materials, skills, and social networks under constraint—contributes to cultural regeneration and regional identity. The research employs a qualitative case study approach, drawing on two semi-structured interviews, documentary sources, and field photography collected between 2024 and 2025. Guided by the Discovery–Evaluation–Exploitation (D–E–E) framework and Bourdieu’s capital theory, the analysis explores how communities transform limited resources into cultural, social, and symbolic capital through iterative creative practices. The findings reveal that material bricolage, such as the reuse of local bamboo and ecological elements, generated distinctive aesthetic expressions and strengthened environmental awareness. Social bricolage fostered collaboration among returning youth, local artisans, and district officials, reinforcing trust and collective authorship. Symbolic bricolage occurred as the festival gained wider recognition, translating cultural participation into regional brand value. The study concludes that bricolage serves as an adaptive mechanism that enables small communities to convert scarcity into creative potential, aligning grassroots innovation with sustainable regional revitalization. These insights offer practical implications for designing participatory, low-cost, and context-sensitive cultural strategies in similar peripheral settings.
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