Case Name: Fujian, China · Innovative Practice of Revitalizing Huian Women's Costumes Based on Fashion Narrative and Digital Interaction

Case Category: Technological Empowerment for the Inheritance and Innovation of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Case Location: Fujian Province, China

Case Applicant: People's Government of Huian County

Case Overview:

Case Description

Huian Women's Costumes are a national-level intangible cultural heritage (ICH). Their unique visual features and the hardworking "Huian Women's Spirit" constitute a highly recognizable cultural gene. Taking the "Huian Women's Customs Promotion Year" as an opportunity and the planning of the Huian Women: Blossoms in Splendor series of fashion events as the primary platform, Huian County promotes the upgrading of Huian women's culture from a visual spectacle to an understandable, experiential and participatory spiritual symbol of the times. This is achieved through the reconstruction of fashion narratives and deepening of digital interaction, supported by a series of measures including empowerment by renowned designers, digital transformation of offline spaces, development of cloud-based study courses, digital cultural and creative products and immersive experiences.

Solutions and Innovation

The innovative practice of Huian Women's Costumes targets two core problems in ICH inheritance: “difficult cultural interpretation” and “difficult long-term development” and provides a systematic solution. It uses the fashion aesthetics of the Huian Women: Blossoms in Splendor series as a medium of translation to convert traditional symbols into international fashion language, realizing a profound leap from visual spectacle to spiritual resonance.

Meanwhile, it builds a tripartite collaborative ecosystem of “policy – market – society”: special policies guide and leverage creative resources; market mechanisms transform cultural narratives into products and experiences; social forces (inheritors, designers, the public) extensively participate in content co-creation and communication. This forms a sustainable closed loop from value decoding to industrial innovation, establishing a long-term support mechanism for the living inheritance and contemporary development of ICH.

Its core lies in the successful paradigm shift from "marketing drainage" to "in-depth value narrative". By building the sustainable cultural translation system of Huian Women: Blossoms in Splendor, it interprets local ICH with an international fashion language system, deepens interactive experiences with technological means such as AR, virtual study tours and digital cultural and creative products, and effectively integrates inheritors, designers and commercial platforms supported by special policy funding. It builds an organic ecosystem of collaborative innovation and accurately solves the deep-seated dilemma that cultural heritage is "incomprehensible".

Social Effects

1. Cultural influence has achieved breakthrough upgrading. Huian Women's Costumes have risen from a regional folk symbol to a fashion IP featured at international fashion weeks in Paris, Milan and Beijing.

2. In-depth communication has achieved remarkable results. The total online exposure of the series of content exceeds 500 million views, and in-depth interpretation content has attracted a large number of young designers and scholars to take the initiative to participate, realizing the intergenerational renewal of the inheritor group.

3. Industrial driving benefits are outstanding. The "Huian Marine Charm" Block has become a phenomenal cultural tourism destination. During the May Day holiday in 2025, it drove a year-on-year increase of 989.5% in tourist volume in the Chongwu Ancient City area, and the income of surrounding businesses increased exponentially.

4. A replicable and standardized empowerment model for ICH modernization has been formed, featuring "core fashion narrative leadership + digital interaction to deepen experience + policy ecosystem collaborative support".

The innovative practice of Huian Women's Costumes provides the "Huian Solution" for the modern transformation of ICH worldwide. It reconstructs cultural narratives with international fashion language, turning regional heritage into a contemporary cultural brand with international communication capacity; it deepens cultural experience and education with digital technology, realizing in-depth empowerment of connotation by technology; with precise policy design, the local government effectively coordinates resources from all parties and builds a sustainable innovation ecosystem with multi-stakeholder collaboration. This proves that the key to ICH "going viral" is to "strike a chord" through systematic value reconstruction, providing practical Chinese local experience for cultural inheritance in the digital era.

Support for Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth)

SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production)