Abstract：Digitalized intangible cultural heritage (ICH) represents a clash between traditional culture and modern technology, and is set to revolutionize the industry. In the post-pandemic era, digital technology offers immersive experience of virtual space and diversifies the value of space operation. In general, the characteristics and attributes of the Metaverse may go against people’s previous perception of ICH. The integration of Metaverse and digitalized ICH may fall into three stages: digital twin, digital native, and virtual-reality intergrowth. At present, the ICH industry’s exploration of Metaverse is based more on digital twin, focusing on skill extraction, spatial mapping and scene twin of digital ICH. In the future, the exploration will turn to digital native and even the virtual-reality intergrowth in a more comprehensive and active way through technology and scenes. In doing so, data silos and information barriers will be broken down, and a decentralized, more open source and interactive ICH transmission field with synchronization and high fidelity will be shaped, which boasts cross-border interoperability, mutual identification, information sharing, and value recognition. Based on the three stages of Metaverse construction and the research findings of several scholars, the author aims at proposing some key technical solutions and operation logic behind the Metaverse of ICH in terms of hierarchical structure, technical support and field architecture.1. The underlying technology and infrastructure environment for ICH entering Metaverse includes two layers: the basic layer and the software layer. The software layer is committed to giving full play to the role of infrastructure in real-world application scenarios. It requires the high simulation, brain-computer interface, human motion capture, high-precision audio-visual production and digital twin tools to multi-modally integrate various ICH resources according to the criteria of categorization and clustering of sources, skill extraction and association construction, so as to completely map, twin and mirror all kinds of ICH skills in reality space to the digital ICH field in Metaverse, realizing seamless integration of virtual and real worlds.2. The second stage of the ICH entering Metaverse includes three layers: the data layer, the algorithm layer and the governance layer. Based on the basic layer and software layer, the data layer further abstracts, aggregates, and strips out all kinds of data generated by users, converts and reduces them into shareable and renewable digital assets, as well as builds the ICH knowledge map, user portrait, and matter map through blockchain technologies such as edge computing, privacy computing, and codeless programming. It also allows users with different needs to project and create one or more digital personas (ID) by developing a series of standards, rules and protocols to encapsulate and modularize the code to different degrees. In general, the construction and development of the ICH Metaverse field is run in an open-source manner and will continue to develop. Everyone is allowed to enter, participate and interact with it anytime, anywhere.3. The third stage of the field architecture of the integration of Metaverse and ICH includes two layers: incentive layer and application layer. To create a new scenario of digitalized ICH consumption in the virtual world, it is necessary to build a payment, liquidation and digital currency system based on smart contracts, incentive mechanisms, consensus mechanisms, exchange mechanisms and other technologies, so as to guarantee data security, improve the system of data identification, development, circulation and transaction, as well as realize the unification of user behavior and credit. Such open organizational mode can build a new and more active social network, from which different users can switch their identities at will and carry out innovative application in areas related to ICH including education, work, life, games, tourism, dating and shopping. In doing so, it will make creative transformation and innovative inheritance of ICH more convenient, fully realizing the integration application of intangible culture and technology.There is no escaping the fact that many factors have boosted Metaverse and brought about both opportunities and challenges for the integration of Metaverse and ICH. At present, we still need to stay alert to capital bubbles, ethical issues and regulation issues, while the development of ICH Metaverse will face many difficulties down the road. The journey to Metaverse is a long haul. Although no one knows where it is heading toward, it is a paradise for explorers and risk takers now.
2023, Vol. 53 
