Cultural participation in the digital era: Evidence from the China Household Cultural Consumption Survey

The advent of digitalisation has fundamentally reshaped everyday life, altering how we communicate, interact, consume, and engage in leisure activities. Using data from the China Household Cultural Consumption Survey, this study examines how people’s digital engagement shapes their cultural participation and well-being. We develop an Individual Digitalisation Index to measure digital engagement and analyse cultural participation across four dimensions: consumption, time allocation, diversity, and content creation. Our analysis reveals three key findings. First, higher digital engagement correlates with increased cultural participation across all dimensions. Second, among these four dimensions, only the diversity of participation – rather than consumption volume or time allocation – demonstrates a significant positive effect on well-being. Third, digital engagement amplifies the positive effect of participation diversity on well-being by facilitating access to more diverse cultural experiences. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of digital economy in facilitating access to cultural activities and its broader implications for societal well-being.