Conserving Intangible Tea Cultural Heritage of Fujian via Digitization

An essential component of Chinese culture, the Intangible Tea Cultural Heritage of Fujian recognized by UNESCO is facing a challenge of losing the traditional skills and eroding of adequate PR. Timely, the rapidly advancing digital technology offers a brand new venue of opportunity for a dynamic development, provided that the industry can overcome the currently encountered obstacles in the areas of technical advancement, artistic sophistication, and coordinated organization. Utilizing the sociotechnical theory, this article derived a three-dimensional technology-driven, culture-based, and socially collaborated framework to analyze the fundamental mechanism of digitization and formulate a functional and well-coordinated plan with appropriate tools and cultural elements for a smooth and exciting transformation. For the first time, the following approaches are proposed: (A) establishment of a hierarchical and adaptive "digital tea ecosystem" to make tacit information explicit, (B) presentation of intangible paradigms and process description with emphasis of mutual benefits and interests, and (C) formation of working collaboration among government agencies, associated enterprises, and local communities. The successfully executed digitized renovation of the Anxi Tieguanyin tea inheritance has vividly verified the practicality of the "digitized mentor-and-apprentice system" and the "preservation-research-utilization cycle" mapped for conserving and reinvigorating the cultural heritage on tea in Fujian.