Digital Transmission Strategies for Xiangxi’s Intangible Cultural Heritage in Traditional Ethnic Sports

Abstract

As a vital component of regional culture, Xiangxi’s traditional ethnic sports carry rich historical memories and social value but face challenges in the modern era—limited transmission channels, a narrow audience, and fragmented digital resourceswing on a literature review and fieldwork, this study combines surveys and in-depth interviews to gather needs data from three stakeholder groups: government agencies, cultural institutions, and local communities. Through statistical and visual analysis, it uncovers the key constraints and opportunities in digitizing these sports. Building on existing platform architectures and content presentation modes, we propose a strategy framework centered on “multi-platform integration, interactive participation, and targeted delivery.” We applied this framework in the “Xiangxi Sports Cloud” platform and a series of mobile micro-video projects, preliminarily demonstrating its feasibility and effectiveness. Findings indicate that by creating an integrated digital platform, optimizing content structure, and enhancing user interaction, we can achieve long-term protection and broad dissemination of Xiangxi’s intangible cultural heritage in traditional sports. Finally, we discuss the strategy’s strengths and limitations and outline recommendations for policy support and future research.