Research on the Creation of Naxi Dongba Script Animation from the Perspective of Intangible Cultural Heritage Regeneration
This article examines Dongba pictographic script—the Naxi ethnic group's unique writing system and the world's only fully preserved "living pictograph"—as a resource for animation creation under the perspective of intangible cultural heritage revitalization. Noting the severe transmission crisis facing Dongba culture (the number of literate elder Dongba practitioners in Lijiang, Yunnan dropped from 103 in 1982 to fewer than four by 2008, exacerbated by tourism-driven commercialization), the authors argue for urgent digital-era intervention. They review scholarly classifications of Dongba script formation methods, including Fang Guoyu's "ten-method theory" and Yu Suisheng's "six-method theory," and Fang's authoritative 18-category classification of roughly 1,600 characters. The study then analyzes the feasibility of merging Dongba pictographs with animation art, highlighting how the script's pictorial storytelling nature, simplicity, symbolism, and playfulness offer rich creative potential for producing aesthetically appealing new animated works that preserve and transmit Naxi ethnic culture.
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