A BIBLIOMETRIC EXPLORATION OF INTANGIBLE CULTURAL HERITAGE DIGITIZATION: KEY PLAYERS, TRENDS, AND EMERGING FRONTIERS

As of December 2022, China has inscribed 43 items on UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) list, establishing itself as one of the countries with the most significant achievements in this field globally. However, with the rapid changes of the modern era, many ICH items are facing varying degrees of vulnerability. Alarmingly, some of these cultural treasures have even disappeared before they could be officially recognized. Against this challenging backdrop, the digital preservation and dissemination of ICH have emerged as critical issues that demand attention from every country.In an effort to reveal the current state, key research topics, and emerging frontiers in the field of ICH digitization, this study explores the status and developmental trends of intangible cultural heritage digital communication in China through a bibliometric analysis. By leveraging CiteSpace to analyze 807 publications spanning the years 2006 to 2023, the study identifies three distinct developmental phases in the digitization of ICH: an initial phase characterized by slow growth, a subsequent period of rapid expansion, and a more recent phase marked by the broadening of research themes. Over time, the research focus has gradually shifted from basic preservation efforts to the incorporation of cutting-edge technologies such as new media and big data. Although the majority of studies remain concentrated within a limited number of universities and research institutions, and cross-institutional collaboration is relatively scarce, there is nonetheless a clear and promising trend toward greater diversity and depth in this research area. This evolution underscores the growing importance of advancing both theoretical and practical approaches to the digitization of intangible cultural heritage.