New ethnoarchaeological data is emerging from years of research conducted in China’s Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Fujian provinces, as well as Southeast Asia. Officially classified as “traditional” pottery from rural areas facing increasing pressure from urban centre, these objects have been compelled by local actors, inheritors, government initiatives, or private investors to adapt to a changing context, viz museification, neo-vernacular or ethnic revivalism, and bourgeoisification. These trends are not mutually exclusive but may change and interact depending on specific cases. The objects, as they once were, have evolved from repositories of their own material semblances and indicators of human adaptation to cultural, social, physical, and environmental use, into signs, symbols, or simulacra of their materiality; from utilitarian and culturally specific tools to hedonistic-exotic collectionism. In this session, we invite contributions from scholars working in similar areas, on the evolution and transformation of material cultural heritage, its conflicts with modern consumption and collection needs, and the complex reconciliation between living culture, situated knowledge, and the commodification of craftsmanship.