Digital soft power of cultural heritage: domestic netizens' subjective perception and characteristics of the global influence of traditional festivals.

INTRODUCTION: In the era of digital interconnection, cultural soft power extends beyond macro-policy communication, increasingly manifesting in the subjective perceptions and group identity evaluations formed by netizens during daily online interactions. This study explores the psychological mechanisms linking domestic netizens' digital engagement with their perceived global influence of Chinese traditional festivals, collective self-esteem, and sense of digital cultural empowerment. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional survey (N = 1,540), we measured digital interaction levels, audiovisual modality dependency, and core cultural-psychological indicators. Data were statistically analyzed via confirmatory factor analysis, multi-group comparisons, and the PROCESS macro. RESULTS: Results indicated that digital engagement was significantly and positively associated with perceived global influence. Moreover, perceived global influence significantly mediated the relationship between digital interaction and collective self-esteem. The data also supported a serial indirect path from digital interaction to digital cultural empowerment, sequentially mediated by perceived global influence and collective self-esteem. Notably, neither audiovisual modality dependency nor participants' overseas experience significantly moderated the core association between digital engagement and perceived global influence. DISCUSSION: The findings support a statistical association consistent with the "cognition-emotion-empowerment" serial framework, suggesting that cultural identity formation and psychological empowerment in the digital age are more closely associated with the active frequency of everyday online interaction than with specific media formats (e.g., short videos vs. text) or direct intercultural experiences. Highlighting the characteristics of "mediated migration," this study provides empirical, user-centric insights for optimizing the global digital communication strategies of traditional cultural heritage. Finally, because this study relies on cross-sectional survey data, all highlighted paths represent statistical associations rather than strict causal mechanisms.