AbstractThere is a widespread initiative to integrate instrumental music into every classroom in China’s compulsory education stage, primarily utilizing instruments conducive to accessible learning and group instruction, such as the recorder and the traditional Chinese Mingjiuqin (Cao, 2022; Xue, 2022). This practice aligns with the 2020 national directive, Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening and Improving School Aesthetic Education Work in the New Era, which mandates the universalization of student arts participation through regular performance opportunities like ensemble playing (Xinhua News Agency, 2020). Against this background, the first researcher, in collaboration with local culture bearers, developed the Ocarina-Fishing Songs Program at a private high school in Shanwei City, Guangdong Province, China. The Shanwei Fishing Songs with the local language (i.e., Fulao dialect) is a tradition of narrative and lyrical folk songs, improvised by the Ou boat fishermen as an integral part of their labor and daily lives (Shanwei Daily, 2024). In recognition of its cultural significance, it was inscribed on China’s National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2024 (China Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center, 2014). Guided by the framework of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) (Paris, 2012), this three-year longitudinal case study investigated how high school students articulate and negotiate their relationship with community music. The participants were five students who took the Ocarina-Fishing Songs Program over three years from 10th to 12th grade. With institutional approval and informed participant consent, data were collected through participant classroom observations, observational field notes, semi-structured interviews, and reflective journals (Creswell & Poth, 2018). Findings indicate that students first transitioned from a state of cultural estrangement to proudly proclaiming themselves cultural inheritors. This shift was mediated by the ocarina, which served as a tangible medium for students to understand cultural nuances and reinterpret traditional aesthetics instead of passive listening. Ultimately, personal engagements extended outside the classroom and fostered intergenerational dialogues that reconnected students with their family histories and spurred a sense of community-level cultural revitalization. This program is not merely to acknowledge students’ heritage but to actively support the continuation of their communities’ linguistic and cultural practices. Pairing an accessible instrument with local intangible heritage within a CSP framework does more than acknowledge students’ cultural backgrounds; it empowers them as active agents in the revitalization and future-making of their community’s linguistic and cultural practices. This model presents a structured framework for enhancing the cultural continuity of ancient traditions among youth.Keywords: Ocarina-Fishing Songs Program, culturally sustaining pedagogy, community music, cultural identity, intangible cultural heritage