Technology Empowerment and Cultural Inheritance: An Analysis of Communication Challenges in Domestic VR Documentaries on Intangible Cultural Heritage

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) creates computer-generated three-dimensional environments that viewers can enter and interact with through head-mounted displays and related devices. When applied to documentary work, VR extends earlier new-media experiments by enabling cultural materials to be captured together with the spatial, performative, and affective conditions in which they are practiced. This is especially pertinent to Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH), where transmission often depends on live demonstration, situated experience, and participant involvement rather than on written records. In China, however, VR documentary practices in the ICH domain are still at an exploratory stage: projects remain limited in number, production quality is uneven, and access to immersive equipment constrains dissemination. This article therefore examines how VR documentaries can operate as viable carriers for ICH in the domestic context. By discussing recent cases and typical production scenarios, it identifies the advantages and current bottlenecks of VR for ICH documentation and proposes directions for improving audience engagement and cultural communication.