Integrating traditional ritual dance and minority culture of Western Hunan into dance instruction: Utilizing information technology to preserve China's intangible heritage.

This article focuses on the development and evaluation of an online platform, CultivChina, designed to preserve and study China's intangible cultural heritage (ICH) specifically through traditional ritual and minority dances of western Hunan. The platform integrates multimedia resources such as photos, videos, animations, and 3D models to support higher education dance instruction and public engagement. A survey of 114 Chinese university dance instructors revealed that photo/video materials are the most widely used IT tools for ICH preservation (68.4%), followed by 3D technology (19.3%), textual documents (9.6%), and virtual reality (2.7%). The study highlights the significant role of digital technologies in safeguarding China's diverse dance heritage and suggests practical applications for curriculum development, cultural education, and the modernization of dance instruction in Chinese higher education.