Embodied virtual reality ethnography in intangible cultural heritage preservation: community co-creation of the Qiang New Year festival and its impact on cultural knowledge and attitudes

Abstract

The Qiang New Year festival, a core intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of China’s Qiang ethnic group, faces an existential crisis due to accelerated modernization and intergenerational discontinuity. This study explores a preservation pathway integrating embodied virtual reality (VR) ethnography with community-based co-design. Over 8 months of fieldwork, we developed a high-fidelity immersive VR experience rendering the ritual structure and narrative texture of the festival in a multisensory manner, enabling embodied participation through experiential learning. A quasi-experimental design (N = 200) employed a content-equivalent control: participants were randomly assigned to either a VR condition or a slideshow control, with both exposed to identical cultural content (ritual knowledge, symbolic systems, and contextual background), thereby isolating the medium’s immersion effect from content exposure. Results demonstrated significant advantages for the VR group in cultural knowledge acquisition (15-item test: VR post-test M = 12.9 vs. Control M = 9.8; p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 1.3) and heritage attitude (5-point scale difference ≈0.7; p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.19). VR participants also reported significantly higher immersive presence and emotional engagement. Post-experiment technology acceptance model (TAM) surveys and follow-up interviews (n = 40, κ = 0.83) indicated high perceived ease of use and enjoyment even among initially skeptical participants. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis (SRMR = 0.063, CR > 0.80, AVE >0.50) validated the extended TAM structure and revealed a significant indirect effect of cultural immersion on heritage support intentions via cultural identification (β = 0.24, 95% CI [0.14, 0.35]). These findings offer a testable framework for integrating embodied VR and community co-design into ICH education, highlighting the distinct roles of knowledge transmission and affective identification in fostering preservation intentions.