Research on the pathways of intangible cultural heritage in enhancing urban cultural soft power—taking Quanzhou City, Fujian Province as an example

As the only Chinese city inscribed on all three major UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) lists, Quanzhou boasts 7 world-class and 36 national-level ICH projects. This rich heritage provides a robust foundation for advancing the city’s cultural soft power. However, field investigations reveal prominent challenges in integrating ICH preservation with the development of urban cultural soft power. These bottlenecks include stagnant living transmission, insufficient synergy with urban development, limited dissemination impact, and a severe imbalance between conservation and commercial exploitation. Grounded in systems engineering principles, this study employs a mixed-methods approach encompassing field surveys (yielding 17 in-depth interviews conducted in March 2026), official dataset analysis(2015–2024), ArcGIS kernel density estimation, and comparative horizontal benchmarking against Suzhou and Chengdu—two national-level historical and cultural cities. We propose a five-dimensional enhancement framework—encompassing structural design, element optimization, conflict resolution, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and quality upgrading—to leverage ICH for soft power augmentation. Furthermore, the study delineates phased implementation mechanisms, quantifiable evaluation metrics, and monitoring tools, offering a theoretical reference and practical paradigm for historical cities aiming to elevate their cultural soft power through heritage resources.