Digital Representation of Dulong Community’s Culture in Gongshan County, China

Abstract

Before 1999, the Dulong community, China's most secluded ethnic minority, remained inaccessible and underdeveloped. The Dulong River region, the sole minority area unreachable by road, endured prolonged isolation (Cheng et al., 2022a, 2022b). Nevertheless, unique cultural heritages, the Dulong community faces extinction and Sinicization threats. Psychologist Mehrabian (1968) asserts that 93% of communication impact is non-verbal, emojis, as non-verbal cues that belong to the visual communication system, gained immense popularity on a global scale. This study explores the imperative need of the Dulong community on its culturally specific emoji set through semi-structured interviews. The first of its kind, the emoji collection features culturally specific elements like Dulong blanket and the ‘Suolaqiao’ ritual. In aboriginals' perception, Emoji's pictorial nature facilitates effortless cultural knowledge acquisition, and its property of shuttling through cyberspace contributes to fostering rapid global dissemination and preserving Dulong culture in a digital world.