In recent years, the issue of intangible cultural heritage inheritance has received widespread attention.Effective inheritance has been hindered,and many intangible cultural heritage with less attention is facing a serious situation of extinction. The reproduction and creation of intangible cultural heritage through media can effectively help the intangible cultural heritage «come alive». This article, based on the concept of media ecology, analyzes the current situation of intangible cultural heritage transmission from the perspectives of economic and policy ecological factors, proposing that intangible cultural heritage should enhance its endogenous power and innovate the concept of transmission to maintain living transmission and sustainable development. At the same time, with the digital information age as the background, new media as the entry point, combined with the public psychology and the development of The Times, from the perspective of stabilizing the internal ecology of intangible cultural heritage and optimizing the external ecology of intangible cultural heritage, the paper explores the path of active inheritance.
Keywords: Intangible cultural heritage; Live transmission; Media ecology; Development path.
The state strongly advocates for the protection of intangible cultural heritage, improving the inheritance system of intangible culture, and enhancing the public's sense of participation and identification with intangible culture.The 2021 «Opinions on Further Strengthening the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage» states that «protecting, inheriting, and utilizing intangible cultural heritage is of significant importance for continuing the historical cultural lineage, strengthening cultural confidence, promoting cultural exchange and mutual learning, and building a powerful socialist cultural country». Chinese scholar Shao Peiren proposed the concept of Media Ecology, which uses the perspective and methods of ecology to explore and reveal the interrelationships between humans, media, society, and nature, as well as the essence and laws of their development and change. [1]Intangible heritage itself has ecological characteristics. Exploring the living inheritance paths of intangible heritage based on the concept of media ecology can bring innovative development to the inheritance of intangible heritage.
Ⅰ. The current Situation of intangible cultural heritage Inheritance
Intangible cultural heritage is known as a «living fossil». China's intangible cultural heritage is rich in variety, diverse in form, and widely distributed, possessing strong regional, indigenous, and ecological characteristics.As a social and cultural recycling ecosystem, when analyzing the development status of intangible cultural heritage, it should be comprehensively considered from a media ecological perspective, analyzing and summarizing ecological factors such as economy, policy, region, and population.
Economic aspects
The "2021 Intangible Cultural Heritage E-commerce Development Report» indicates that «over the past three years, the consumption of intangible cultural heritage has achieved rapid growth in both quantity and scale. Last year, 14 clusters of intangible cultural heritage on Taobao have achieved annual transactions exceeding 100 million yuan». In recent years, the phenomenon of «intangible cultural heritage fever» has attracted a large audience, with consumption indicators for intangible cultural heritage products rising sharply, which has, to some extent, promoted the growth of the social economy. However, as an emerging niche economy, intangible cultural heritage new economy remains in a weak position in the process of marketization. There is a certain sense of alienation between its cultural implications and value connotations and the general public's preferences.Some intangible cultural heritage products or projects have not yet formed a scale of industrialization, and some intangible cultural heritage projects find it difficult to create economic benefits. Relying solely on government support, subsequent development and inheritance are hard to sustain, making it difficult for them to «come alive».
Policy aspects
Since China joined UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004, it has increased efforts to protect and pass on intangible cultural heritage. As of March 2022, China has successfully inscribed 42 intangible cultural heritage projects on the UNESCO list, ranking first in the world. In 2021, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the «Opinions on Further Strengthening the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage», requiring all regions and departments to earnestly implement the policies in light of actual conditions. They are tasked with strengthening the protection and inheritance system of intangible cultural heritage from multiple perspectives and angles, and improving the level of protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. Local governments have also introduced various policies for the protection of intangible cultural heritage in accordance with the development of local heritage, systematically improving the inheritance system. However, the issues of inheritance and protection of intangible cultural heritage in remote and backward areas remain neglected. Local governments do not pay enough attention to intangible cultural heritage, and the enforcement is relatively weak, making it difficult for intangible cultural heritage to regain its brilliance.
Regional Aspects
The saying goes, «One land nurtures one people», and regional differences lead to variations among people in terms of lifestyle customs and cultural receptivity. Even in today's era of diverse media, the transmission of intangible cultural heritage can transcend temporal and spatial limitations. However, the deeply ingrained local concepts of the masses [2] seem to show little interest in intangible cultural heritage from other regions. This results in the transmission of intangible cultural heritage being confined to its original, fixed areas. The influence of geographical and ecological factors restricts cultural exchanges, significantly reducing the ecosystem for the transmission of intangible cultural heritage. Therefore, due to issues such as imbalanced regional discourse and influence, intangible cultural heritage struggles to break through the local segregation of cultural media dissemination in its transmission, making it difficult to achieve cross-regional inheritance.
Demographic Aspects
Currently, the biggest issue facing the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage is the problem of intergenerational transmission. The urban-rural dualism caused by urbanization and the decline of rural areas are the basic background of our era. Young people have a relatively indifferent emotional identification and cultural acquisition towards rural culture, resulting in the loss of the mass base of rural intangible cultural heritage and a gap in the transmission of talent. [2] Intangible cultural heritage is gradually being forgotten in rural areas or has become the cultural memory of most outsiders. The concept of intangible cultural heritage protection and transmission is weak, and in addition, the aging problem of intangible cultural heritage bearers is severe. Intangible cultural heritage bearers cannot sustain their lives solely on a sense of mission, and the group of intangible cultural heritage bearers is gradually fading into the streets and alleys, with the loss of bearers causing intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship to gradually decline in the tide of the times. Therefore, the flow of population and the lack of cultural memory and sense of mission among intangible cultural heritage bearers have become the main issues in the transmission of intangible cultural heritage. If this continues for a long time, intangible cultural heritage will be difficult to effectively protect and pass on.
II. The main tasks of the living transmission of intangible cultural heritage
Intangible cultural heritage is characterized by its dynamic nature, and the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage should be vibrant and continuous, not static and rigid. So-called living transmission refers to the preservation of the originality and regenerativity of intangible cultural heritage, dynamically inheriting within the socio-cultural ecosystem, and achieving sustainable development. Currently, facing the many challenges of protecting and inheriting intangible cultural heritage, breaking the deadlock of static inheritance and revitalizing its splendid brilliance, dynamic inheritance will be a necessary measure for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
Reshaping the value of intangible cultural heritage, enhance its intrinsic motivation.
In the background of the era of cultural diversification, due to the influence of ecological factors such as economy, geography, and audience groups, the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage is not optimistic. Its internal ecosystem is already in a state of dispersion and imbalance.For a long time, intangible cultural heritage has been in a state of static dissemination, lacking internal vitality. Without protection and innovation, its original features and traditional crafts will gradually perish, losing their intrinsic value. The internal ecosystem of intangible cultural heritage needs to be «come alive» again. Living transmission can combine the development trends of the times and the needs of mass culture, integrating «primitiveness» with «modernity» to inject fresh blood into intangible cultural heritage. This allows intangible cultural heritage to undergo value reconstruction on the basis of maintaining its primitiveness, enhancing its endogenous power.
Break the regional limitations and promote the sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage
The traditional methods of inheriting intangible cultural heritage rely on oral transmission and personal instruction. With the progress of society and the acceleration of urbanization, these traditional methods have become outdated. The issue of intergenerational transmission of intangible cultural heritage urgently needs to be addressed, as a single linear method of teaching can no longer adapt to the current needs of intangible cultural heritage. Dynamic inheritance can make the methods of intangible cultural heritage transmission more diverse. By creating non-linear, multi-channel paths of communication, it connects inheritors with potential inheritors across time and space, breaking down geographical limitations. It promotes the integration of local, niche intangible cultural heritage into the mainstream cultural sphere, fosters an external, balanced, and harmonious cultural ecosystem, and drives the sustainable inheritance and development of intangible cultural heritage.
III. Exploring the Path of Living transmission of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Media Ecosystem
Focusing on the media ecosystem, integrating the development principles of the media ecosystem, comprehensively considering the ecological factors affecting the ecosystem of intangible cultural heritage, and utilizing the concept of media convergence, leveraging new media to innovate development models, can provide effective pathways for the living transmission of intangible cultural heritage.
Relying on new media, build a harmonious and balanced internal ecosystem
- Stimulate endogenous power, create new value
Economic value
The emergence of new media is a new opportunity for intangible cultural heritage to reach the masses. The «digital+» model has been applied to the construction of various scenarios and product innovation. Intangible cultural heritage can learn from this model, integrating cultural elements of intangible cultural heritage with digitalization, producing 3D intangible cultural heritage products, and incorporating intangible cultural heritage elements into mainstream daily tech products. By appealing to consumers with unique, distinctive, and trendy personalization, these products can create economic benefits. Moreover, relying on intangible cultural heritage products to boost rural revitalization, live streaming to sell products is undoubtedly an effective way to promote intangible cultural heritage products. By innovating live streaming content to showcase the original beauty and modern practical value of intangible cultural heritage products, it can attract a wide range of consumers to pay attention to and purchase intangible cultural heritage products, driving the economic development of rural areas and ensuring that they are effectively protected and sustainably inherited and developed in their places of origin.
- Cultural Value
The state has introduced relevant policies to protect intangible cultural heritage, leading a new social trend that values intangible cultural heritage. It encourages major media platforms to organize various activities for the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, such as «The Sentiment in Intangible Cultural Heritage» and «My Wonderful Fate with Intangible Cultural Heritage». These activities aim to encourage inheritors and enthusiasts of intangible cultural heritage to contribute videos, writings, and other forms of content, using media as a means of dissemination. The goal is to create a sentimental journey for the preservation of intangible cultural heritage, to evoke the cultural memories of the public, and to strengthen the sense of identity with intangible cultural heritage. Local governments can focus on school education, fully utilizing local intangible cultural resources to develop local curricula and offer elective courses on intangible cultural heritage in schools. Students can learn through video media, which not only enriches their educational resources and realizes the cultural value of intangible cultural heritage but also stimulates their interest in intangible cultural heritage. This approach aims to cultivate students to become excellent successors and inheritors of promoting and passing on intangible cultural heritage.
- Time value
On one hand, by utilizing digital media, the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage becomes more novel and content-rich, avoiding vulgarity and showcasing the mainstream values of the new era. For example, the 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in China featured China's outstanding traditional intangible cultural heritage, which was reprocessed through digital technology and displayed on 3D screens, showcasing both a sense of the times and cultural appeal, stirring a profound sense of cultural pride and identity among the people. On the other hand, considering the human groups growing up in the new era, the methods of disseminating and inheriting intangible cultural heritage need to be more down-to-earth. In the design of intangible cultural heritage products, they should be integrated with the daily necessities of clothing, food, housing, and transportation that the public enjoys, making intangible cultural heritage an indispensable part of people's lives, effectively promoting the revitalization and sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage.
Ⅱ. Seize new opportunities and connect with inheritors
– Inspire a sense of mission and innovate methods of inheritance
The state can increases support for inheritors of intangible cultural heritage and introduces relevant incentive policies for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. Local governments should improve their executive power, earnestly implement every non-genetic inheritor, and stimulate the sense of mission and responsibility of the intangible cultural heritage people to inherit the intangible cultural heritage. Specifically, video recording can be used to present the original features and cultural depth of intangible cultural heritage with high definition lenses. The documentary images of intangible cultural heritage and the manufacturing processes of the craftsmen can be further refined to restore the beauty of the original intangible cultural heritage and the details of the manufacturing process, transforming static intangible cultural heritage into dynamic forms. Local governments can organize offline lessons by intangible cultural heritage masters, or upload recorded videos to online platforms, and can establish a local online course system to provide more convenient learning paths for enthusiasts of intangible cultural heritage. With the support of national policies, the application of blended teaching methods in the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage helps to address the issues of preserving the process of intangible cultural crafts and the effective inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
– Gather new forces and build a community
Intangible cultural heritage faces the issue of traditional community fragmentation, which is detrimental to the balanced development of its internal ecosystem. Utilizing online «communities» can effectively rebuild new community relationships and achieve the «re-tribalization» [4] of intangible cultural heritage. Specifically: in the first place, based on big data to research the age, preferences, and categories of intangible cultural heritage enthusiasts, we can create high-quality intangible cultural heritage content through platforms such as Douyin short videos, WeChat public accounts, and Weibo. This content aims to stimulate the interest and emotional resonance of intangible cultural heritage enthusiasts, inviting them to join communities for discussions on related intangible cultural heritage issues and exploration of intangible cultural heritage protection methods. Secondly, the national mainstream media, such as People's Daily and CCTV, can initiate activities related to «protecting and inheriting intangible cultural heritage», with advocates from various types of intangible cultural heritage inheritance driving the development of the activities, building an intangible cultural heritage community to promote the progress of the activities. While spreading the concept of protecting and inheriting intangible cultural heritage, through community splitting, potential intangible cultural heritage enthusiasts are attracted, gathering more people into the community, dedicated to bringing intangible cultural heritage into the mainstream culture and promoting sustainable living development. Building a community for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage helps the inheritors to continue the tradition.
Optimize the external ecosystem as a whole to create a virtuous cycle ecological environment.
1 . Respect the diversity of intangible cultural heritage, and promote the development of a hundred schools of thought in unity.
– Seek common ground while preserving differences to pursue development.
The fragmentation of media presentation significantly diminishes the unique charm and cultural value of intangible cultural heritage. Therefore, when innovating the ways of presenting and inheriting intangible cultural heritage, it is essential to uphold the concept of cultural co-development. While maintaining the distinctiveness and authenticity of intangible cultural heritage, we should optimize its image and engage in personalized, dynamic inheritance. We must respect the differences among various intangible cultural heritages across different regions and use digital media to systematically organize and preserve them, conducting detailed explorations into the cultural forms and production techniques of each. We should tailor our approaches to the unique characteristics of local intangible cultural heritages, leveraging their core competitiveness to the fullest extent. This will foster a healthy competitive environment among various forms of intangible cultural heritage, stimulating their contemporary value and contributing to the construction of a positive ecosystem for sustainable development.
– Beauty and Innovation in Unity
The presentation of intangible cultural heritage through digital media should lean more towards showcasing the beauty of culture, while also striving to display the unique characteristics and charm of the intangible cultural heritage itself. By leveraging social hot topics and current mainstream aesthetics, it is important to focus on innovative cultural output. Creating trending video accounts for intangible cultural heritage can attract more attention, understanding, and protection for these cultural practices. For example, the well-known blogger Li Ziqi showcases the beautiful rural pastoral life online, featuring Chinese cuisine, culture, customs, and traditional crafts in her videos. The cultural sentiment and sense of belonging to her homeland that she conveys have sparked an emotional resonance among the public, leading to a significant response from audiences both domestically and internationally. The living transmission of intangible cultural heritage can also learn from this model. Once a trending video account has an effect, it will help regional intangible cultural heritage reach the masses and bring Chinese intangible cultural heritage to the world.
2. To carry out living heritage across time and space, constructing a new pattern for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage.
– Creating situational contexts for intangible cultural heritage
The medium itself is not a static, closed material entity, but an open system with vibrant life-like characteristics. The central focus of the media ecology is on the interaction between the media system and the social system. [5] One of the problems faced in the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage is the poor interaction between the public and culture. Adopting a scenario-based model can combine digital science and technology with intangible cultural heritage. Specifically, with the support of the government and society, we can establish offline public welfare intangible cultural heritage experience halls, using digital media to showcase the production processes of intangible cultural heritage products, restoring the authentic scenes of intangible cultural heritage production, allowing people to perceive the charm of intangible cultural heritage in immersive experiences, and enjoy the visual feast brought by technology. At the same time, according to the process displayed by the media, the public can freely create at offline venues, enjoying the fun of handmade production, further deepening their perception of intangible cultural heritage, achieving cross-temporal and spatial communication between people and intangible cultural heritage, building an interactive relationship between people and intangible cultural heritage, thereby stabilizing the external ecological environment of intangible cultural heritage.
– Create a virtualized three-dimensional space for intangible cultural heritage
By categorizing intangible cultural heritage and virtualizing the manufacturing process, users can simulate the process of making intangible cultural heritage within the game. Through completing corresponding tasks, they can unlock intangible cultural heritage in other regions, gaining a comprehensive understanding of intangible cultural heritage in the virtual game space. This can spark interest and lead to the protection and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage in real life. Furthermore, popular games such as «Honor of Kings» and «Fantasy Westward Journey» have already begun to integrate elements of intangible cultural heritage into game skins, scene construction, and character creation, which are deeply loved by players. Under the virtual space of digital media, through the use of virtual technology, people experience the charm of China's intangible cultural heritage, engage in the production process of intangible cultural products, and gain a more intuitive understanding of the image and intrinsic value of intangible cultural heritage. This approach can awaken the «cultural memory» of those stranger and the sense of identity and novelty towards intangible cultural heritage among the youth, thereby further protecting and passing on the intangible cultural heritage.
V. Conclusion
The rapid development of digital science and technology and the transformation and upgrading of mass media have provided new directions for the living transmission of intangible cultural heritage. Within the media ecosystem, intangible cultural heritage can achieve innovation in intrinsic value, forms of dissemination, and external image through digitalization and new media. This maximizes the connection between the public and intangible cultural heritage across time and space, arouses the public's cultural identity with intangible cultural heritage, and optimizes the ecosystem for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage as a whole. The living transmission of intangible cultural heritage is a long-term and arduous task. Researchers need to further integrate economic, policy, technological, and other ecological factors, taking into account the differences and characteristics of intangible cultural heritage, to promote the sustainable inheritance of intangible cultural heritage and create a virtuous cycle inheritance system.
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[1] Fund project: «Media Communication Strategies for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Nen River Basin from the Perspective of Cultural Memory» under the 2021 Basic Scientific Research Fund Project of Heilongjiang Provincial Higher Education Institutions, Project Number: 145109346.
