Transmedia Storytelling of Liangzhu Culture Inscribed Symbols

Abstract

Liangzhu culture is “the evidence of Chinese civilization for 5000 years” and has great historical and social values. As an essential material for studying Liangzhu culture, the narrative carrier of Liangzhu culture inscribed symbols has experienced continuous expansion from paper media to new digital media. With the advancement and integration of technology, virtual reality technology has also become a unique storytelling medium. The development of new media has continuously optimized the way of cultural communication and information dissemination. This research aims to explore the transmedia storytelling of Liangzhu inscribed symbols, combine the existing VR exhibition project, further promote the dissemination of Liangzhu culture, and ultimately strengthen the construction of Liangzhu inscribed symbols and enhance the influence of Liangzhu culture through new technology.

1. Introduction

At the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 2019, the archeological ruins of Liangzhu in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, were inscribed on the World Heritage List, serving the world’s most recognized material evidence of the “5000-year Chinese civilization”. At the beginning of Liangzhu’s inscription, Liangzhu culture was caught in the dilemma of low brand awareness, poor recognition, and lack of communication power. Liangzhu culture had not received attention commensurate with its value status. However, in recent years, the Hangzhou government has been strengthening the promotion of Liangzhu culture. On February 19, 2023, the government report of Hangzhou first mentioned “building a corridor of Liangzhu culture,” which was upgraded from “Yuhang Action” to “Hangzhou Initiative,” fully reflecting the importance that the Hangzhou municipal government attaches to Liangzhu culture.

In recent years, the dissemination of Liangzhu inscribed symbols has also become a new path to build the urban image of Hangzhou. The Liangzhu culture inscribed symbols with unique forms, and exceptional cultural value helped create the Liangzhu and Hangzhou symbols. Throughout the propagation of Liangzhu inscribed symbols, it has used various media for narrative, significantly since entering the digital world. Transmedia storytelling greatly expands the influence of Liangzhu culture. American scholar Henry Jenkins defined the concept of transmedia storytelling in his book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide in 2003. Transmedia storytelling means the complete story text creates a unified, continuous entertainment experience with the help of multiple media platforms. In an ideal environment, each medium plays an irreplaceable role in the overall textual story [1]. At the beginning, it is linked to fiction genres and later to non-fiction genres. Then, key areas where transmedia storytelling is applied are in education and knowledge dissemination, the business world and branding [2]. Taking advantage of different media, the diversification of cross-media narrative channels has undoubtedly promoted the propagation and promotion of Liangzhu culture. The research aims to explore the cross-media narrative effect of Liangzhu culture inscribed symbols hoping to promote the dissemination of Liangzhu culture further.

2. Transmedia storytelling of Liangzhu inscribed symbols

Media is the material-based tool that is needed to communicate across time and space [3]. The choice of media defines what and how we carry out the dissemination of knowledge. The variety of narrative medium, which integrates the benefits of multiple media, is one of the characteristics of transmedia storytelling of Liangzhu inscribed symbols.

Liangzhu inscribed symbols are a critical element in the study of Liangzhu culture. Found in large quantities on pottery, stone tools, and jade tools of excavated artifacts from the Liangzhu culture site, these symbols, of which there are more than 340 kinds, are distributed on more than 600 artifacts, with a total number of more than 750, which are first-hand information for the study of Liangzhu culture. Liangzhu inscribed symbols appear on pottery, jade wares, and other utensils in carvings with material media as the carrier. However, since the Liangzhu civilization was discovered in 1936, the transmission carrier of Liangzhu culture inscribed symbols had shifted from material form to mass media.

In the start, Liangzhu culture was carried on paper media, and the content was mainly focused on archeological excavation briefs and current political newspapers. For example, The Excavation Brief of Liangzhu Cemetery in Anti Mountain, Yuhang, Zhejiang (1988), written by Wang Mingda and The Excavation Brief of Liangzhu Culture Altar Site in Yao Mountain, Yuhang (1988), written by Rui Guoyao. In addition, there are also reports from current political newspapers such as the New Agency Newspaper (Figure 1). All this information was available in text, supplemented by pictures. However, paper materials specifically recording the symbols of Liangzhu culture inscriptions have yet to appear, mainly in artifact records in other books, such as Ancient Jade of Liangzhu (1996), edited by the Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Cultural Relics. Until 2015, Zhang Binghuo and the Liangzhu Museum jointly published a book dedicated to documenting Liangzhu culture inscribed symbols, Pictographs of Liangzhu Culture, which collects many artifacts engraved with symbols and contains more than 3000 pictures of exquisite excavated artifacts, as well as corresponding topographies and facsimiles. At the beginning of the excavation of Liangzhu culture, the dissemination of Liangzhu culture was mainly by the most direct way of information transmission. Until the emergence of auditory and audiovisual recording techniques, writing as a notational system to record the transitory sound waves of speech was for a long time the main option to store and disseminate information across time and space [4]. On a page, the written word of a text is integrated into other multimodal contexts and interacts with spatial information about images and layouts. As a kind of visual art, the picture reproduces the image symbols with the help of pictures, color, and other expressive elements, bringing intuitive visual impact and showing the image symbols such as “the surface patterns of god, man and beast,” which is also named Liangzhu God emblem (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

The new agency newspaper.

After entering the contemporary information society, digital new media have become a tool for storing and presenting Liangzhu inscribed symbols. According to the definition of Professor Xiong Chengyu of Tsinghua University, new media is a media form that emerges and influences based on the foundation of computer information processing technology. Standard digital new media include digital movies, digital TV, digital animation, and digital games. The dissemination of Liangzhu inscribed symbols is mainly based on the Liangzhu God emblem, a cultural totem with the identity of the Liangzhu people. It has become a label for promoting Liangzhu culture.

Reports flocked to the Liangzhu cultural site after it was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2019. Then, the Liangzhu God emblem appeared widely in streaming media publicity. For example, the creative cultural relic introduction short video If National Treasures Could Talk, designed and released by the Liangzhu Museum, the introduction of the divine human-beast-faced motif and jade Cong in variety shows such as National Treasures and China in Heritage, and the popular science animation Decoding the Liangzhu God Emblem released on Bilibili. The transmedia storytelling of the Liangzhu God emblem has also been extended to the field of video games. DIY game platforms such as My World and Animal Samurai recreate the entire Liangzhu cultural site on the game platform, presenting the transmedia storytelling of the image symbols of the Liangzhu God emblem more innovatively. Henry Jenkins points out, “Ideally each medium makes its own unique contribution to the unfolding of the story.” Different forms of media increase the intellectual, engaging, and entertaining nature of the Liangzhu God emblem in different ways. Visual art has more forms of expression in the digital media environment. Visual art can change the thinking process from the referent to the referent of the symbols, and the figurative directly acts on people’s vision. Therefore, the publicity method based on videos, comics, and the game brings the viewer a better viewing effect, enhances entertainment and fun, and also becomes one of the main means to promote Liangzhu culture.

In addition, the Liangzhu God emblem also entered the design field, relying on different media to present exquisite ornamentation. FELALA, a fashion jewelry design brand and the Liangzhu Museum, jointly released the Dreaming of Liangzhu design jewelry, carrying the image symbols from jade carvings to fashion jewelry, attracting consumers’ attention. Transmedia storytelling practices may expand the potential market for a property by creating different points of entry for different audience segments [5]. This cross-field interaction can broaden the scope of Liangzhu culture fans and promote the breadth and depth of Liangzhu culture communication. The vivid digital coding and creative cultural activities of the image symbols of the Liangzhu God emblem give readers great imagination and a rich interpretation experience. The transmedia storytelling of it has also been used on many specific occasions, such as the unique stamps of the Asian Civilization and the elements of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games mascot, “Cong Cong”, (Figure 2) which takes its name from the Liangzhu jade and represents the ancient city site of Liangzhu in the shape of a robot. In the Liangzhu culture, jade Cong is a special kind of existence, it is the latest to be unearthed, but the most numerous, and is an essential carrier of the Liangzhu God emblem. The exquisite decoration on the head of “Cong Cong” is taken from the Liangzhu God emblem, which means “to surpass oneself without fear of danger.” These kinds of media writing have made the symbols of the Liang God emblem play the role of national cards, uniquely presenting the richness of Chinese civilization.

Figure 2.

Cong Cong.

From the history of human development, the mass media technology of each era, from printing and broadcasting to film and television, has once profoundly influenced the art and culture of that era and thus promoted the progress and development of human society [6]. The new digital media represented by digital TV, the Internet, and cell phone media have significantly impacted contemporary visual arts. Today’s era centers on graphical images and visualized culture and media are becoming mainstream. Virtual reality technology, as the latest technology, is also advancing the innovation of visual art.

Virtual reality technology contains virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), which uses computers to generate a simulated environment with the help of professional equipment, such as sensing helmets and data gloves, allowing users to enter the virtual space and get an immersive and realistic feeling [7]. The new technology has shifted the narrative medium of Liangzhu culture inscribed symbols to virtual reality technology. On October 31, 2019, Liangzhu ancient city site officially released the “Double 5” plan; the combination of 5G and virtual reality technology will gradually become a new way to demonstrate and promote Liangzhu culture.

AR augmented means that visual reality is a particular part of real reality. Liangzhu Museum has launched “AR glasses” and “AR fitting mirror” projects. For the former, visitors can observe critical cultural relics in the collection by wearing AR glasses, such as jade Cong, black pottery carved jars, and ivory scepter. This approach brings the distance between people and heritage infinitely closer. When visitors look at a jade vessel engraved with “a bird standing on a high platform” (Figure 3), they can see the small birds inside the carved symbols come alive and fly out from the jade jar and surround it. AR glasses project will be static inscribed symbols dynamic, the figurative directly on the human vision so that the distance between vision and visual objects is dissolved. This intuitive, profound, and engaging visual experience breaks through the two-dimensional model of visual art to achieve three-dimensional interaction. The latter project increases the visitor’s participation by dressing up as a Liangzhu king or queen, wearing a feather crown on his head, holding a scepter in his left hand and a jade scepter in his right hand, which increases the sense of immersion while having zero distance access to jade with engraved symbols.

Figure 3.

AR glasses.

MR mixed reality technology means virtual reality and real reality overlay each other. The MR holographic artifacts project in the No.1 Interpretation Hall of Liangzhu Ancient City Heritage Park restores the Liangzhu jade engraved with cultural inscriptions. For artifacts inscribed with symbols, visitors can operate in the air by switching and rotating the artifacts on the screen through gestures. It allows visitors to carefully observe the details of the jade Cong in 360° through a set of professional MR display devices jointly developed by Hangzhou Mobile and Liangzhu Museum. MR technology allows visitors to view artifacts that have never been on display, opening up access to rare artifacts and enabling the digital preservation of cultural heritage. Thus, visitors can enjoy a clearer view of the mysterious patterns on the jade Cong and the totems representing the divine power of the time, enhancing interactivity.

In AR virtual reality projects, virtual reality creates a parallel world to real reality, which means that visual art is not just reflecting and communicating the world we live in but also creating it. By realizing the fusion of visual art and auditory and other sensory art, VR technology has full-sensory characteristics. The projects displayed at the Liangzhu Museum include virtual VR online classes and museums. Through virtual reality technology, students separated into two locations are brought together in a virtual VR classroom, allowing them to experience the production life of the Liangzhu ancestors. It also provides a channel to witness the exquisite jade of Liangzhu at close range and observe the Liangzhu God emblem engraved on jade in more detail. VR virtualization of the environment enhances the authenticity of visitors. It promotes the balance of quality educational resources while enhancing the charm of Liangzhu cultural inscription symbols, the specific practice, and the new empowerment of VR technology [8]. The VR synchronized classroom has also become one of the ways of transmedia storytelling of Liangzhu cultural engraving symbols.

3. “Online VR exhibition ‘bird traces and insect writings: the inscribed symbols of Liangzhu culture”

The Internet, social networks, and mobile devices are now part of our lives that has increased museums’ potential for generating and disseminating content, turning them into machines of mass knowledge transfer [9]. In recent years, VR as a representative of new technology has gradually entered the field of museums. VR exhibition has broken traditional museums’ time and space limitations, allowing visitors to visit anytime and anywhere. In 2022, the Museum of the Nanyue King Mausoleum launched the “Discovery of Liangzhu” VR exhibition, which reproduces the production and life scenes of the ancestors of Liangzhu through virtual reality technology and provides a glimpse of the Liangzhu style of the water township 5000 years ago. In the same year, the Museum of Archaeology and Art of Jilin University and the Liangzhu Museum joined hands to create a virtual world of Liangzhu inscription symbols. They jointly launched an online virtual experience exhibition, “‘Bird Traces and Insect Writings’—The Inscribed Symbols of Liangzhu Culture.” For the first time, Liangzhu inscribed symbols are exhibited in a thematic virtual museum, relying on new technology to realize the cross-media narrative of Liangzhu inscribed symbols.

The “Bird Traces and Insect Writings” virtual exhibition refers to narrative theory regarding overall spatial layout and creative design. It presents the characteristics of inscription symbols of different periods of Liangzhu culture in a sequential narrative manner. The content of the VR exhibition focuses on inscribed symbols appearing on pottery in different periods, single lines with “x” and “flat line” as basic elements, flora and fauna symbols including “Bird standing on a high platform” and studies of writing from an academic perspective. The virtual exhibition hall has the following features.

First, it provides an immersive experience. The online virtual experience exhibition “Bird Tracks and Insects Writing” uses the technology of new images to build a 360° simulation three-dimensional guide system for visitors to create a unique immersive experience and to appreciate the immersive visual experience and impact. Dark tones dominate the entire exhibition hall to render the mysterious and quiet temperament of the Liangzhu culture inscribed symbols. In the choice of lighting, the overall atmosphere of the symbols is matched, taking the symbol of “Bird standing on a high platform” as an example, the yellow light source is used to create a religious ritual atmosphere, containing a sense of mystery, and the lighting and illumination are used to create the atmosphere of the exhibition hall, with the meaning of the cultural engraved symbols to narrate.

Second, it focuses on interactivity. The three-dimensional virtual display of cultural inscriptions provides several different virtual roaming modes for Liangzhu culture inscription enthusiasts and researchers: Visitors can choose the best browsing path and perspective according to their preferences or choose a specific camera to appreciate the cultural inscriptions of interest in the scenic spot according to the preset camera position of the scene; at the same time, according to the intelligent mobile terminal device in hand, visitors can control the direction and adjust the viewpoint of the visit in real time, visit the scenic spot independently, and zoom in and out of the interface by dragging and dropping with the mouse and sliding with the scroll wheel. The design deeply integrates the content and display design capability based on “objects,” providing visitors with multiple angles and levels of appreciation of cultural relics and access to the expanded information behind them to obtain the expected communication effect.

And these modes highlight the personalized characteristics of the audience and broaden new channels for promoting Liangzhu culture. Compared with the traditional museum, the esthetic value of the virtual museum is reflected in the virtual reproduction of the real three-dimensional cultural relics, the richness and completeness of the cultural relics information, the flexibility and convenience of the visiting environment, and the infinite extensibility of the display space.

4. Promotion of the VR exhibition “bird traces and insect writings”

The online virtual experience exhibition “Bird Traces and Insect Writings” gives a general overview of the Liangzhu cultural period. However, the current VR exhibition is insufficient for cultural inscriptions, such as the two unique inscriptions of Liangzhu, “combination symbols” and “Liangzhu God emblem.” So the VR exhibition can be further improved.

Firstly, the display of Liangzhu combined symbols in the form of virtual artifact models and individually engraved symbols. Based on the narrative principle of the online virtual experience exhibition, this part can select continuous combination symbols with storytelling, such as inscribed symbols on Liangzhu pottery, not only individually but also in “groups.” On a black pottery jar, the Liangzhu people carved 12 consecutive symbols. Paleographer Mr. Li Xueqin identified these symbols as “Yan Jian Shi, Wang Hu Shi Feng.” (Figure 4) “Zhu” is probably a clan name or a person’s name, meaning a red flag; “Jian” means to go; “Shi” is a place name; “Feng” means realm. Taking the symbols as a whole, the meaning is that Zhu went to Shi’s land and caught tigers with a net in the stone territory. Introducing the inscribed symbols in the form of a narrative story adds narrative as well as interest. There are many similar combinations of symbols, such as the carved symbols of the Chenghu site, which is considered the “Fang Yue Hui Shi,” that is, to conduct a rendezvous in the Yue Kingdom [10]. Simple inscribed symbols may become a record of a military alliance of Liangzhu culture, or even a document of the state’s founding, the name of which is the same as that of the later Yue state. Through the combination of symbols, visitors can further experience the charm of Liangzhu inscription symbols in the form of stories.

Figure 4.

South Lake black pottery jar.

Secondly, as a cultural totem rich in connotation, highly generalized, and abstract expression, the Liangzhu God emblem is one of the valuable objects of Liangzhu culture inscribed symbols to display. The main elements of the image symbols of the gods and beasts include the image of the gods and men on the upper part and the image of the beasts on the lower part. The main components of the image of the god-man are a feather crown, a human face, and hands around the animal face, which is inverted trapezoidal in shape, with round eyes, a wide nose, and teeth; the main components of the image of the animal face are a heavy circle with huge eyes, wide nose, wide mouth with fangs, and animal claws. The above components result from the alienation and highly abstract symbolization of several things.

In the Liangzhu culture period, the “divine man” and “animal face” motifs have transitioned from fine carving to simple line outlining. From the naming, the two motifs are related to “divine man” and “animal face”. The two parts of the motifs can appear simultaneously or separately on a jade. The elements of the gods and beasts are taken from nature, and the value of the association between man and nature, gods, and totems is highlighted after combination and deformation. The creation of totems is often related to the nature worship of ancient primitive tribes, and natural beasts, plants, and weather phenomena may all become the objects of totem metaphors. Suppose the sacred things in the eyes of the Liangzhu people are abstracted into a half-human, half-beast symbol. In that case, it not only retains the role of human beings but also expresses the meaning of sacredness, linking divinity and humanity as a symbol of the coherence between heaven and earth, involving the early worship of the gods and humans of the Liangzhu ancestors. And the evolution from the animal-face pattern to the god-man pattern reflects a transition from nature worship to ancestor worship in the minds of the Liangzhu ancestors. The jade of Liangzhu culture is a kind of religious ritual vessel. As a carrier of the Liangzhu God emblem, the religious beliefs of the Liangzhu people are expressed on it. The Liangzhu God emblem totem is intuitive and symbolic and has an intrinsic dialectical relationship between its referent and its referent, which has rich interpretive value.

Finally, the comparison between Liangzhu cultural inscriptions and ancient Egyptian cultural symbols is presented, which mainly contains two Liangzhu cultural inscriptions, namely the “Bird standing on a high platform” and the “Liangzhu God emblem.”

The Liangzhu inscription “Bird standing on a high platform” is often associated with studying other regional civilizations. However, compared with regional civilizations in other parts of the world, the closest image to the Liangzhu “Bird standing on a high platform” is the “Serekh” protective form of the names of certain pharaohs in ancient Egypt. The “Serekh” protective form, meaning the front of the palace, was later regarded as the king’s name frame of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs and a symbol of kingship highlighting the king’s name. It consists of three main parts, the bird, the “palace,” and the symbol inside the palace, meaning the “falcon” power cult, the palace facade, and the ruler’s name, respectively, and the combination is highly similar to the trinity of the Liangzhu bird standing on a high platform. According to the testimony of Discovering the Xia Dynasty and the proof of the “Egyptian-Xia theory of unity,” some of the “Bird-standing high platform” carved symbols on Liangzhu jade can be directly regarded as the names of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, such as Pharaoh Nebre of the Second Dynasty. On the left is a jade bi with carved symbols from Liangzhu, which is in the Freer Museum in the United States. The jade shows a side-standing bird standing directly on a stepped “altar” filled with scrolling clouds. For the interpretation of the scrolling cloud pattern, Wu Hong believes that the circle with four reversed single spiral scrolling cloud patterns is similar to the oracle “sunlight” and the meaning of this symbol [11]. The bottom of the altar is supported by a moon-like figure, forming a combination of “sun and moon,” which corresponds to a pharaoh of the Second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt whose palace facade contained a combination of sun and moon symbols (Figure 5).

Figure 5.

Liangzhu bird-standing on a high platform (left) and Nebre names (middle and right).

The other part compares the Liangzhu God emblem and ancient Egyptian cultural symbols. According to the interpretation of Discovering the Xia Dynasty, the Liangzhu God emblem is from the depiction of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh holding a phallic weapon to offer sacrifice to the god. However, this interpretation is not quite the same as the generally accepted division between gods and beast faces. Usually, the division between the divine man and the beast’s face is that the upper part of the feathered crown and the upper limbs belong to the divine man. In contrast, the lower part belongs to the beast’s face, which is considered to be the kneeling posture of the divine beast. The division in Discovering the Xia Dynasty should be the big-eyed part of the pharaoh’s phallic weapon, and the part of the forelimbs of the divine beast should be the legs of the divine man, so the Liangzhu God emblem is an image of a divine man holding a phallic weapon (Figure 6).

Figure 6.

Liangzhu god emblem from discovering the Xia dynasty (368).

Therefore, the VR exhibition section of the comparison between the Liangzhu culture inscribed symbols and ancient Egyptian cultural symbols will show the comparison between Liangzhu cultural inscriptions and ancient Egyptian cultural symbols. It could be presented in graphic form, using textual forms for better interpretation. The meaning of the bird standing on a high platform and the Liangzhu God emblem must be further explored. Still, the appearance of similar symbols from two ancient civilizations suggests that this coincidence also proves that there were certain similarities between Chinese and Western cultures, especially in the understanding of thought and religion, at the beginning of the birth of early national societies. The display of this panel also allows visitors to feel the coincidental second clash of ancient ideas and a different perception of Liangzhu culture.

5. Conclusion

City symbols are iconic things that represent the cultural characteristics of the city, have inheritance value, give people a deep impression, and make them proud [11]. And the promotion and creation of Liangzhu culture inscribed symbols is undoubtedly the best means to shape the city symbols.

In recent years, the Liangzhu inscribed symbols represented by the Liangzhu God emblem have broken through the traditional narrative media and gradually developed into new digital media. Among them, the new media represented by videos and games have increased the knowledgeability and entertainment of Liangzhu inscribed symbols at different levels. Virtual reality technology has the characteristics of immersion and interaction; reproducing virtual scenes, this technology transforms the visual transformation of Liangzhu’s inscribed symbols from two-dimensional pictures to three-dimensional images. In addition, the Liangzhu VR exhibition further expands the scope of Liangzhu culture dissemination through the flexibility and convenience of the visiting environment and the infinite extension of the display space, enabling visitors to visit the Liangzhu inscribed symbols exhibition online anytime and anywhere. In the digital media environment, Liangzhu inscribed symbols have more forms of expression and promote the dissemination of culture and information. This diversity of narrative media choices is conducive to each media platform giving full play to its own advantages to contribute to the overall narrative and construct a complete story world of Liangzhu ancient culture. As an innovative transformation of Liangzhu culture, the transmedia storytelling of Liangzhu inscribed symbols shows strong vitality and glows with eternal charm, making a unique contribution to the dissemination of the connotation of Liangzhu cultural heritage and contemporary value promotion, as well as city image building.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Think Tank Construction Project of Hangzhou Normal University (2020), the Key Research Institute of Philosophy and Social Sciences of Hangzhou, and the Literary Criticism Institute of Hangzhou Normal University; the Key Research Base of Hangzhou Philosophy and Social Sciences.