Generating Embodied Storytelling and Interactive Experience of China Intangible Cultural Heritage “Hua'er” in Virtual Reality

Hua'er, a type of traditional oral performance, is one of the national intangible cultural heritages (ICH) in China. Experts have been trying to enhance public's awareness of Hua'er protection through digital documentation technology, but there's no efficacious means to attract interest and popularize knowledge yet. In this paper, we propose an interactive VR system engaging audiences to experience and understand the connotation of Hua'er performance. Based on an online survey with the public and in-depth interviews with Hua'er experts, we derive a set of design requirements for generating embodied storytelling and interactive experience in VR. Accordingly, we design “Hua'er and the Youth” (HY) that integrates three methods (virtual avatar, participatory performance, and game-based knowledge acquisition) and conduct a between-subjects user study to compare HY with the Comparison system. The results suggest that our methods significantly improved audience's interactive experience, knowledge level and the awareness of ICH safeguarding.