The Evolution of Intangible CH Digital Resources: The Case of the Qingming Festival

Abstract:This article explores the influence of economic, social, and geographic factors on the evolution of the Qingming Festival, considering both spatial and temporal dimensions. The primary purpose is to propose new strategies for the protection and inheritance of intangible folk culture, which is an important component of a region’s intangible cultural heritage (CH). The Qingming Festival has a rich folk cultural connotation. Exploring it through digital resources can be useful for accomplishing the protection and dissemination of intangible CH folk culture. On the basis of the vividness of folk culture, this study employs the method of intelligence analysis with the help of digital visualization technology. In the temporal dimension, this study explores the influence of significant events on the evolution of the Qingming Festival. In the spatial dimension, this study considers the regions as the nodes of a social network and the main custom of the regions as the connection. Showing the association between the Qingming customs in different regions in the form of a quantitative network map, the spatial dimensions of the Qingming Festival and its inheritance are visualized. The main data sources include the Erudition Database and the WiseNews Database. Through these studies, the evolution process of intangible CH can be vividly presented to the public, and the recognition and attention of the society on intangible CH inheritance and protection can be enhanced. Further, this research makes a significant contribution to the literature because it offers a more comprehensive framework for the analysis of projects concerning intangible CH and provides a method that can be extended to other case studies.