DianTea: An augmented performance VR system for enhancing Chinese youth learning about tea-making as an intangible cultural heritage

Abstract

As one of China’s intangible cultural heritage (ICH) artifacts, dian cha is a distinctive tea-drinking ritual deeply rooted in traditional Chinese tea culture. This ritual art form is characterized by its specialized tea-making implements and meticulously choreographed performance techniques. Sadly, this ICH is on the verge of being lost, as many young Chinese are increasingly neglecting traditional Chinese cultural activities. To better promote dian cha and stimulate young people’s interest in learning about tea culture, we propose “DianTea,” an immersive virtual reality (IVR) tea-drinking system that uses a virtual teacher, embodied bilateral performances, game-based learning, and culturally contextualized designs to help remote players learn about dian cha. To explore the feasibility of combining IVR with ICH, we conducted a between-subjects user study of the DianTea system’s interactive (IM) and browsing (BM) modes among a group of 40 young adults. The results showed that compared to the BM, the IM significantly improved learners’ knowledge acquisition and learning motivation, provided a sense of engagement and presence, and effectively enhanced their interactive experience and awareness of the need to preserve Chinese ICH.