Case Name: Zhejiang, China · Digital Protection and Dynamic Inheritance of Cultural Heritage in Gaoqian Ancient Village

Case Category: Technological Empowerment for Cultural Heritage Preservation

Case Location: Zhejiang Province, China

Case Applicants: Research Center for Digital Humanities of Renmin University of China, School of Information Resources Management of Renmin University of China, Taizhou Municipal Archives Bureau of Zhejiang Province, Gaoqian Village, Baita Town, Xianju County, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province

Case Overview:

Case Description

Following the overall implementation idea of Gaoqian culture analysis, digital resource construction and digital product development, this case first conducts systematic fieldwork and documentary research to thoroughly sort out the historical context, family structure and spiritual traditions of Gaoqian Ancient Village, constructing a relatively complete Gaoqian cultural structure system. Centering on folk relics, old documents and oral memories scattered among the people, it extensively carries out digital collection and organization, completes standardized cataloging and storage of multimodal resources, and achieves centralized preservation and structured management of the ancient village's memory resources. On this basis, it builds a systematic framework with a web-based communication platform and a digital resource database as the core, adopting the "front-end platform and back-end database" mode as the overall technical route. Integrating historical and literary research with digital creativity methods, it develops the Gaoqian Ancient Village Digital Memory Website and VAM (Virtual Asset Management) Platform, forming a publicity platform for Gaoqian culture that integrates preservation, display, communication and educational functions.

Solutions and Innovation

Gaoqian Ancient Village is a national-level historical and cultural village, forming a unique and continuous local cultural tradition over more than a thousand years. However, with population mobility, aging paper documents and damage to traditional buildings, the village's memory is at risk of being lost.

This case systematically empowers the activation of traditional village culture through digital technology, forming an innovative digital memory model integrating integrity, diachronism and intelligence. First, it breaks the digital path of traditional cultural heritage that focuses on single objects or static displays, analyzing and digitizing all elements of Gaoqian Ancient Village's culture, constructing a multimodal integrated "holographic" digital memory system to achieve a holistic presentation of the village's culture. Second, it innovatively introduces the time dimension, integrating over a thousand years of historical evolution, family inheritance and spatial form into a unified digital narrative framework, creating a diachronic digital memory space connecting the past, present and future. Third, it emphasizes dynamic cultural expression, building a perceptible and experiential digital dynamic village by integrating tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Fourth, it introduces AI to empower cultural activation, using generative animation technology to transform static archival materials such as "Ten Major Events of the Wu Family" into aesthetically appealing dynamic narratives, significantly enhancing the communicative impact and emotional resonance of traditional culture. Fifth, through semantic archive organization and multi-dimensional narrative design, it realizes in-depth correlation and sustainable utilization of cultural resources, forming a replicable and promotable paradigm for digital protection and activation of traditional villages.

Social Effects

Taking Gaoqian Ancient Village as a case study, this case pioneered the electronic archiving of ancient villages in Zhejiang, directly promoting the implementation of the provincial "Thousand-Village Archives" construction and facilitating the introduction of relevant laws, which clarify archiving requirements through local legislation. The digital memory model it constructed provides a direct blueprint for the digital projects of five provincial-level historical and cultural villages in Taizhou. It upgrades the communication efficiency of archival culture through book compilation and all-media communication, laying the foundation for the "Archives Speak for Ancient Villages" activity. It not only injects new vitality into the cultural and tourism development of Gaoqian Ancient Village but also mobilizes multiple stakeholders to comprehensively promote the protection and inheritance of rural culture in Taizhou.

Support for Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 4 (Quality Education)

SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure)

SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities)