This article examines the market and social mobility of Wa ethnic performers, who engage in music, dance, and other performing arts in the urban cultural and entertainment industry. In contrast to intangible cultural heritage inheritors, who are typically older, the Wa performer community consists mainly of young people from their own ethnic group. The study explores the heterogeneity of the Wa performer community through a series of oral history interviews and participant observation conducted in Masan Village, Yunnan Province (one of the primary output places for Wa artists) and Kunming City (one of the input areas). It finds that the community's diversity depends on how they use cultural capital. The key findings reveal that the survival status and lifestyle of Wa performers not only impact the preservation of the Wa song-and-dance performing arts field, but also the development of the ethnic group as a whole, due to the two-way embedding of Wa artists between urban and rural areas. To promote the transformational development of Wa artists, the study suggests strategies such as offline to mediated exhibition, "one area one industry" in the off-site to on-site, and government investment in human capital, while still preserving traditional "Passing on Experience". The attempt to negotiate between tradition and modernity within an uncertain context prompts ethical implications and debates.
