Research on Symbolic Expression and Digital Design Methods of Intangible Cultural Heritage Based on Big Data Analysis
Published Online: Mar 24, 2025
Received: Oct 26, 2024
Accepted: Feb 13, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/amns-2025-0719
Keywords
© 2025 Hui Zhang, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Symbols are the carriers of information created by human beings and are the embodiment of culture. The process of symbolization of intangible cultural heritage involves the extraction, exchange and recognition of cultural symbols, so as to ultimately realize the sharing of cultural meaning. For a long time, the symbolization of intangible cultural heritage has been manifested as a long-term “conventional” process, i.e., formed and developed in a certain cultural background and historical inheritance [1-4]. With the accelerated development of digital technology, intangible cultural heritage is bound to draw on science and technology and integrate into life in order to move from history to contemporary times [5-6].
The digital design of intangible cultural heritage is of great significance. First of all, digital design helps the preservation and inheritance of intangible cultural heritage. By recording the performances, skills, traditional customs and rituals of ICH through digital media, the cultural heritage can be preserved and passed on even in the course of time and environmental changes, which will help future generations to understand and learn [7-10]. Secondly, digital design provides new ways and tools for the transmission and dissemination of intangible cultural heritage. Through the use of virtual reality, augmented reality and other technologies, intangible cultural heritage is brought into the virtual space or real scene, so that people can experience and feel the charm of cultural heritage in an immersive way [11-14]. In addition, digital design can combine intangible cultural heritage with modern creativity and technology, leading to innovation and integration. Creating artworks or cultural products with modern elements can not only enhance the attractiveness and influence of ICH, but also give it a new vitality in contemporary society and contribute to the sustainable development of ICH [15-18].
Intangible cultural heritage is an important symbol of the history, development and spirit of the nation, through the display and development of cultural symbolization, it can better improve the pride of the nation’s culture and enhance people’s knowledge of intangible culture, and it is also an important measure to protect intangible cultural heritage. Literature [19] examines the application of traditional cultural symbols in visual communication design. By analyzing its problems and proposing effective development strategies, it provides reference for designers so as to enhance their own value. Literature [20] synthesizes the problems of obtaining benefits from cultural heritage, and also and discusses its legitimacy and public opinion. Through case studies, the future occurrence and consequences of the situation in question are estimated. Literature [21] explores the relationship between cultural symbols and symbolic culture. From the perspective of linguistic semiotics, the analysis found that cultural symbols represent cultural forms and symbolic culture represents cultural meanings, and the two are a combination of forms and meanings, which together construct a cultural system. Literature [22] emphasized the philosophical thoughts and cultural concepts embedded in traditional Chinese paintings by analyzing the mood of traditional Chinese paintings and interpreting them with specific cultural symbols. Literature [23] discussed the integration of traditional cultural symbols with modern product design. Based on the significance and value of traditional cultural symbols and the characteristics and requirements of modern product design, integration strategies including strengthening the innovation ability of traditional cultural symbols and enhancing talent training are proposed. Literature [24] studied the application of traditional Chinese cultural symbols in architectural design. It is pointed out that the integration of cultural symbols and architectural design is an important strategy to promote cultural heritage and enhance the taste of architectural design.
The development of digital technology has brought about the maturity and perfection of the entire digital ecosystem, and digitalization has achieved all-round penetration, whether in daily life or in the research and application of professional fields. In the protection and transmission of intangible cultural heritage, naturally, it is also deepening in the process of digitization. Literature [25] aims to provide information to increase public awareness of cultural heritage. A system development methodology utilizing a prototype model was used, including design and evaluation phases. The results pointed out that the map information system was effective in improving the delivery of information on cultural heritage. Literature [26] integrated the unique cultural attributes of intangible cultural heritage based on 3D digital technology, new media, and design tools so as to design cultural and creative products, which present 3D effects to increase consumers’ interest in intangible cultural heritage. Literature [27] examined the digital application of ICH. Through field investigation, combined with the theory of cultural ecology, the ontology-based semantic web technology was proposed, and the Nanjing “Yunjin” brocade weaving technology was taken as the research object. By proposing a model for the digital application of intangibles and verifying the validity of the model, it provides a reference for the sustainable development of cultural tourism. Based on the theories of information space and virtual reality, literature [28] conducted a study on the digital protection of intangible cultural heritage. The results emphasized the effectiveness of digital technology in the protection, inheritance and innovation of intangible cultural heritage, which plays an important role in the protection of intangible cultural heritage. Literature [29] emphasizes the importance of intangible cultural heritage. It also describes the results of a reconstructive modeling and visual narrative project on “Digital Historic Landscape Design”. Through the application of appropriate digital technologies, content is created that meets the requirements of “dissemination” and “communication” in museums. Literature [30] describes that the development of information technology brings opportunities for the preservation of intangible cultural heritage. Based on the literature review, a digital protection system for intangible cultural heritage based on information technology was designed. And the effectiveness of this system was verified by testing, while but the number of users increases, the response time of the system increases.
This paper analyzes the process of symbolic expression of non-heritage from four levels, namely, semiotic “triadic relationship”, semiotic reproduction trichotomy, semiotic method and symbolic translation method. At the same time, innovative methods of digitization of non-heritage are designed, such as using the non-heritage network platform to carry out two-way interaction between users and non-heritage, and applying OpenGL to restore the real scene during the creation of non-heritage. By obtaining the digitized data of NRL symbols, and classifying and processing the data, it provides effective data support for the subsequent evaluation of the symbolic expression of NRL and the effectiveness of digital inheritance and protection by using big data analysis technology.
The logic-rhetoric model proposed by Peirce [31] argues that logic is a science that studies the universal laws of symbols, and that logic is a form of semiotics.
The “ternary relationship” is a symbolic expression relationship composed of “object”, “representation”, and “explanatory item”. The appearance of the reproduction is determined by the object itself, not by its reproduction. In other words, the reproduction of the character is determined by certain properties of the object.
Semiotics is a discipline that constantly learns, refines, and always revises. In the case of “one thing for another,” Peirce divides the referential object into two categories: the direct object and the dynamic object. The direct object of the symbol can be considered to be the object presented by the symbol itself, regardless of whether it exists in the symbol itself.
In semiotics theory, the receiver’s interpretation of the meaning of a symbol is called the interpretive term, which is the result of the meaning of the symbol. The understanding of the representational relationship between the reproducer and the object requires the same intellectual and cultural background as that of the communicator of the meaning, so the interpretive term is also another kind of reproducer.
However, due to the difference in life experience and cultural background, symbol receivers will have different results in the interpretation of symbolic meaning, that is, the accepted meaning will have different forms of expression, which leads to the cessation of the interpretation of meaning. Therefore, Peirce divided the interpretation term into three parts and proposed the ultimate interpretation term theory, thus demonstrating that the symbolic meaning will eventually end in one place. It shows that symbols have the characteristics of community, in addition to pluralism, openness, and dynamics. The ternary theoretical relationship is shown in Figure 1.
Pierce’s ternary theoretical relation diagram
The semiotic repertoire of three-part relationships is shown in Figure 2. Semiotics divides symbols into certain real relations with the things they represent: likenesses, indications, and statutes.
Pierce’s symbolic three-point theoretical relation
A likeness symbol is a symbol that replaces its referent object based on the similarity between them. Whether or not a symbol character is possessed is not affected by the presence or absence of a symbol, and the two are not related, because a symbol character is a characteristic that is possessed in itself.
An indicator is ideologically perfect in that it can prompt the interpreter to confront the character it refers to. But a pure indicator does not convey a message; it merely induces the receiver of the symbol to draw his attention to the object of his reaction.
A symbol that uses a law to indicate its object is a statute symbol, and a statute symbol can only be a symbol if it is determined by the object of motivation; in short, a statute symbol is socially constrained, which suggests that a statute symbol can determine the interpretive term. Statutes can be based on other types of symbols, and when they are formed, they are transmitted through the communication of people, and their meaning grows and develops through their use.
Research on the expression of intangible cultural heritage (hereinafter referred to as: intangible cultural heritage) through semiotics crosses disciplines, and at the same time the integration of design concepts can more comprehensively explore the symbolic expression of intangible cultural heritage and the conveyance of the inherent meaning of digital design, and the use of cross-disciplinary strengths, to diversify and refine the creative elements, in order to achieve the ideal symbolic design, as well as the protection and innovation of intangible cultural heritage.
Pierce’s semiotic theory focuses more on the analysis of the logical relationship contained in the symbol itself, considering it as something that can reflect other things, be understood and recognized by people, and have some kind of influence on people. In-depth study and analysis of the symbolic triangle and nine subordinate symbols to form a complete system of symbols, and in-depth understanding of the methods of expression and the basis of interpretation. Symbols such as pictorial symbols, symbols, and signs are now popularized and used, and are commonplace in non-heritage digital design.
“Translation” was initially defined as a behavior in linguistics, which describes the various actions that take place in the process of language translation. Although its core is the dissemination of information, its definition has been further expanded with the wide application of translation maneuvers in various fields.
Direct Translation Direct translation is a kind of “shape” translation of the mother topic, retaining the original content and form as much as possible, and operating on the basis of translation, the prototype after translation is less transformed in form, and to a large extent retains the richer original data. Based on the typological classification method, the “archetypes” are extracted from the existing non-legacy as the mother symbols, and these symbols are translated into the modern digital non-legacy style. Intentional translation Intentional translation is a kind of translation technique to extract the “meaning” of the prototype and take its meaning without copying its shape. In the field of NRL symbolization, this technique means to take into account the geographical environment, natural factors and human customs of the location, and then integrate the original NRL symbolization and the extracted “meaning” before translation, so as to make it better express the spiritual core of the site.
The digital design of intangible cultural heritage [32] has the advantages of sustainability, integration, interactivity, plurality and immersion, which bring new vitality to the dissemination of intangible cultural heritage, and the symbolic ecological environment of intangible cultural heritage in the digital environment should also have these major elements.
The production process of non-heritage items is stored in a network database using digital information collection and recording. The specific program is to develop a non-heritage database system, where users can enjoy and learn after logging into the database and retrieving the content they want. The traditional production process is displayed on the network, and users are encouraged to upload photos to display their own non-heritage works, so that the traditional craft skills can be used as a platform for two-way interaction of non-heritage.
This system is mainly aimed at a specific group of people with learning disabilities, such as school students. At the same time, the system also has the function of entry of non-legacy, setting the heirs or protection workers of non-legacy, experts and scholars of non-legacy research as the administrators, providing an online platform for entering and organizing non-legacy.
The cultural and artistic products of intangible cultural heritage should be activated to connect their functions with their forms and endow them with new vitality. Accelerate the innovation speed of non-legacy products, vigorously carry out the “cultural creation + digital + exhibition design” model, adopt big data, Internet of things, VR and other technologies, and actively develop new products, new technologies, new models and new formats. At present, the development of mobile phone client applications is one of the categories chosen by most products. It can display graphic and image data and other forms in front of the public, forming zero-distance communication between users.
According to the needs of users, communication and publicity should be carried out, modern digital technology should be used to establish a popular science platform of intangible cultural heritage and present it to the public in the form of modern digital technology, so that users can more intuitively understand, feel and learn intangible cultural and art. The APP of intangible cultural heritage art is built according to history, culture, skills and other methods, and publicity and promotion are carried out to the public in a digital and young form, so that more young people can have close contact with Chinese intangible cultural heritage art.
Cell phone media and different types of mobile terminals have been everywhere, and mobile terminals can access information anytime and anywhere. Pushing the production and development contents of non-heritage to the mobile terminal, so that the general public can have more frequent contact with the non-heritage handicrafts and development history, and build a good non-heritage dissemination atmosphere. Conveniently obtaining various graphic materials of different non-heritage through mobile terminals and logging in to the application related to non-heritage can help to build a good atmosphere for mass communication of intangible cultural heritage.
OpenGL is used to develop a 3D scene with real scenarios of different non-heritage productions. The 3D scene presents the user with a general framework, and the specific semi-finished or finished products are selected by the user through different menus in the interface. The menu includes different non-heritage documentary playback menu, different non-heritage products menu, such as: click into the birch boat non-heritage production menu, there will be birch boat original material that is the first step in the production process to obtain birch bark, according to the birch boat production process step by step to guide the user to complete the entire production process, and the scene and the material are three-dimensional presentation. It simulates the production process of real non-heritage works in the virtual space, and users have a strong sense of experience.
By analyzing the dimensions of the digital expression of NRL symbols and its constituent elements, the constituent factors are clarified, and on this basis, big data is utilized to quantitatively analyze them.
Review data Review data is the data that users spontaneously rate and score on the platform based on user experience, the most common are shopping evaluation, takeaway evaluation, taxi evaluation, food evaluation, etc., such as Taobao, Meituan, DDT, Dianping, etc. Social Data Social data is the user autonomy to share their own feelings about the digitization of non-legacy symbols and so on. Through user review data analysis and processing, and user demand feedback design, the digitization of non-heritage symbols as a place for tourists to browse and experience will inevitably receive many comments. Sentiment analysis can help understand the user’s true feelings about the digitization of non-heritage symbols. Picture Data Because many reviews and social network comments are not accompanied by pictures, in order to enrich the sample library, browser image data is added based on previous review and comment data. The selected browser should have a large number of visits, a large number of picture libraries, strong picture relevance and higher quality of pictures, in summary, the selected browser sites are: baidu pictures, bing pictures and google pictures. Hot word data In the network hot word search ranking, the commonly used sites are: Baidu index, huge math, 360 trends, Sogou index and so on. Comprehensive user base and website size, Baidu index is selected as the website to study hot word data.
For the data used in this paper, it is mainly divided into two categories: text data on the one hand and image data on the other. For text data, data cleaning is needed first. Data cleaning is divided into three steps, the first is to organize the elimination of interference words, special characters and other invalid information and some because of the collection rules and repeated collection of text, followed by the need to make up for the missing or garbled data due to program errors. Finally, the data from different platforms need to be summarized and the format is unified.
Image data processing is based on semantic recognition. Through pre-categorization of objects and scenes in the pictures, the percentage of each type of thing in the images can be recognized and calculated.
Symbol grouping and reconstruction are important methods of visual element expression in modern design. The deconstruction of the non-legacy visual element symbol can be separated by the visual symbol of the same kind, and the expression of a certain connotation can also be applied to the design of a non-reprinted visual symbol through gradient, scale and repetition, and expresses the visual aesthetic characteristics and the time flavor of the non-relic. In the derivative design, it is necessary to select the most representative visual elements of intangible cultural heritage, extract and summarize them into concise symbols, and carry out innovative design through the reconstruction and regrouping of different themes, so as to reshape intangible cultural heritage and make it conform to modern aesthetics, highlight the visual characteristics and connotation of intangible cultural heritage, and make it recognized and concerned by people again.
The symbols of intangible visual elements, after being extracted and translated, not only possess simplicity and conciseness in modern design language, but also convey the image of context inheritance and life emotion. In the derivative design, the innovative application of intangible visual symbols needs to explore the fit with the theme of modern life while maintaining its own characteristics, inject the atmosphere of The Times and the connotation of life, so that modern people can recognize and love it, making it once again an indispensable art form in people’s lives.
This section takes the non-heritage Tea Hundred Opera as an example, and studies the semiotic attributes of the Tea Hundred Opera motifs by extracting the graphic symbols, color symbols, musical symbols, textual symbols, material symbols, as well as architectural symbols therein, and carrying out the symbolic translation such as citation, exaggeration, and reorganization. At the same time, through the recording and interpretation of symbols, better understanding of the Tea Hundred Opera, explore the cultural elements of traditional Tea Hundred Opera patterns and digital design concepts combined with the ideas and methods of translation, to ensure that the Tea Hundred Opera patterns have both artistic beauty and effective cultural heritage. In this section, a questionnaire survey is conducted to assess the degree of embodiment of pattern symbols, historical origins, tea ordering techniques, and spiritual connotations in the digital design of the Tea Hundred Operas. The survey was conducted by 100 randomly selected platform users, using a 5-degree scale as a tool to implement equidistant measurements, and assigning 1~5 points respectively, with gradual increments.
Figure 3 shows the results of the research on the effect of symbolic expression of the digital design of Cha Bai Opera. From the data in the figure, it can be seen that this paper has a better symbolic expression effect for Tea Hundred Operas based on digital technology. The survey users’ ratings of the degree of embodiment of pattern symbols, historical origins, tea-dotting techniques and spiritual connotations are 4.40, 4.58, 4.09 and 4.29 in order, indicating that this paper extracts and translates the symbolic features of the Tea Hundred Operas based on the ternary symbolic model, and presents them to the users in a digital form, which preserves the core cultural values of the Tea Hundred Operas and realizes the digital remodeling of its cultural connotations.
The results of the survey of digital design symbolization
The study takes the user experience in the digitization of non-heritage as the research object, and borrows the OpenGL development technology to design and realize the digitized scene in the creation of non-heritage. On this basis, in order to assess the impact of digitization technology on user experience and to verify the feasibility and value of this paper’s methodology, this section designs the “User Evaluation Questionnaire for Digitized Scenes of Non-heritage Creation”. The questionnaire mainly includes instinctive level experience, behavioral level experience, and reflective level experience.
At the same time, the study set up a simple scenario for the experiment offline, controlled for extraneous variables that interfered with the experience and invited users to participate online and offline. The online participants will watch the video and read the explanatory text to complete the evaluation of the experience. After completing the experience, users were redirected to the questionnaire platform to complete the scale and rate the experience, and all participants received a brief training session. The study produced 100 samples, with 100 of them being valid questionnaires and a validity rate of 100%.
Figure 4 depicts the questionnaire research data of the NRM digital user interaction experience. From the data of the research to reveal the conclusion, it can be seen that the digital scene experience of non-heritage creation meets the design requirements, and it has a better performance in the aesthetics, functionality, ease of use, social participation and other experience dimensions, with a flat score of more than 9 points. Meanwhile, using the data, the shortcomings of this design practice can be identified. On the one hand, the experimental site of virtual reality and the lack of background element design limit the experience contextualization (8.77 points) to be improved. On the other hand, due to the failure to collect data on the personalized needs of the user group in advance, the interpretation and exploration processes of different users are relatively similar, causing the score of the personalized (8.58 points) experience element dimension to decline.
Non-reprinted digital user interaction experience questionnaire survey
This section compares the effect of non-heritage dissemination under the traditional mode with that under digital technology, and selects users who use the digital non-heritage platform of this paper to conduct a questionnaire survey on 10 non-heritage items. The questionnaire sets questions from three aspects: users’ cognitive status, emotional attitude and behavioral tendency towards non-legacy. The data obtained from the survey were statistically analyzed with the help of SPSS software to assess the cultural dissemination effect of the digital design of NRL. The questionnaire was also used as a tool for assessing the communication effect of NRL culture by using a 5-degree scale for equidistant measurement, and users’ cognitive status, emotional attitudes and behavioral tendencies were divided into five levels.
Figure 5 exhibits the comparison of the communication effect of intangible cultural heritage at both cognitive and attitudinal levels. As can be seen from the figure, the communication effect of digital design for intangible cultural heritage at the cognitive and attitude levels is significantly higher than that of traditional mode. Under digital technology, users’ awareness and attitude towards intangible cultural heritage increased by 15.36%~67.86% compared with traditional methods.
Awareness and attitude level cultural communication results
In addition, in order to evaluate the behavioral trend of users, the frequency of behaviors will be examined, which will be always, often, sometimes, occasionally and never, and the values will be 5-1 respectively. The higher the score, the better the behavioral effect will be, indicating that users will take the initiative to understand relevant intangible cultural heritage content, be willing to share information related to intangible cultural heritage, actively participate in intangible cultural heritage activities and respect intangible cultural heritage habits. By counting the behavioral frequency of 100 users in different intangible cultural heritage presentation modes mentioned above, the communication effect of intangible cultural heritage digital design at the behavioral level is evaluated. User behavior trends include: sharing on social networking sites, participating in intangible cultural heritage activities, inviting others to participate, taking the initiative to understand intangible cultural heritage, respecting intangible cultural heritage habits, and inquiring about unknown knowledge. Six items are recorded as behaviors 1 to 6 in turn.
Figure 6 shows the comparison of the effects of NRH culture dissemination at the behavioral level. From the figure, it can be seen that the frequency of choosing always and often among the six behavioral tendency indicators in the digital dissemination of NRH is significantly higher than that of the traditional method, and there is not much difference between the two in the frequency of choosing sometimes, but the frequency of choosing occasionally and never in the digital dissemination is lower than that of the traditional method. It shows that the frequency of positive behavioral tendencies among users in the digital design of NRL increases and negative behaviors tendencies decrease.
The behavior level is not compared to the propagation effect of the legacy
In order to study the satisfaction of visitors to the non-heritage digital display method designed in this paper, this section collects the text data of visitors’ reviews, socials, pictures, and hot words based on the big data analysis method, and evaluates the user’s satisfaction by utilizing the machine learning method to evaluate the sentiment expressions in the text positively, negatively, and neutrally, respectively.
Fig. 7 shows the confusion matrix of the predicted results of the user satisfaction evaluation text sentiment. The diagonal data in the figure is the accuracy of sentiment prediction, from the figure, it can be seen that most of the users’ evaluation text sentiment can be correctly classified, with an accuracy of more than 93%, such as for the highly positive sentiment, the classification accuracy of the method used in this paper is 95%, but there is still a possibility of 2% to be recognized as general positive and neutral sentiment, and there is a possibility of 1% to be recognized as general negative sentiment. The big data analysis method utilized in this paper is effective in classifying text sentiments, which can satisfy research on the evaluation of visitors’ emotional satisfaction.
User satisfaction evaluation of text emotional prediction results
In order to further utilize the big data analysis method to analyze their satisfaction with the digital nongenetic inheritance strategy designed in this paper through the user evaluation text, 100 users’ satisfaction evaluations of the strategy were counted in conjunction with the questionnaire survey, and the scores were assigned according to the strength of the evaluation. The assignments are as follows: highly positive (4-5 points), moderately positive (3-4 points), neutral (2-3 points), generally negative (1-2 points), and highly negative (0-1 points).
The results of the survey to get the users’ satisfaction rating of the methodology of this paper are shown in Figure 8. From the figure, it can be seen that most of the investigators’ satisfaction comments for positive emotions, accounting for 91% of all investigators, only two showed general negative emotions, there is no highly negative comments. Through the evaluation strength statistics to get the comprehensive satisfaction of the investigators on the method of this paper is 4.2 points (out of 5 points), indicating that the use of the method of this paper for the digital dissemination of non-legacy has gained great recognition.
The results of the user’s evaluation of the method satisfaction score
Based on Pierce’s ternary symbol model, the article extracts symbols from the context or historical background of NRM culture and structures, associates and reorganizes them to adapt them to new contexts or aesthetic demands. Subsequently, based on network platforms, GIS, mobile terminals, and digital technologies such as OpenGL, it provides practical paths for the inheritance and innovation of non-heritage. At the same time, the value brought by the implementation of this paper’s method for digital inheritance of non-heritage is specifically analyzed in combination with big data technology.
Intangible cultural heritage is the precious spiritual wealth and cultural heritage of mankind, permeated with strong Chinese cultural values and Eastern aesthetic philosophy. How to inherit and display the beauty of intangible cultural heritage through innovative ways in the modern context and form a design with depth and connotation is an important issue worth thinking about at present. Under semiotic semantics, the innovative derivative design of intangible visual elements in different ways is one of the effective ways of developing non-genetic inheritance. At the same time, intangible cultural heritage with a long history and rich connotation can also be rediscovered with a new image and a new charm.