Under the background of “cultivating tourism through art and highlighting art through tourism” in the cultural and tourism integration, art has become an important means to activate the new internal driving force of rural cultural tourism. This study selects Maioxi Town, Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province in the Yangtze River Delta region as a typical case. Based on the new endogenous development theory, it constructs a four-dimensional analysis framework of “space - culture - subject - business model”, systematically analyzing how art can activate rural areas and empower the new endogenous development of the cultural tourism industry. The research finds that Maixi Town influences the value concept layer, organizational structure layer, capacity building layer and sustainable driving force layer of the village through artistic practices such as the aesthetic creation of rural space, the artistic transformation of local culture, shaping the internal driving force of rural artistic innovation, and the innovative integration of tourism business models. It integrates art aesthetics, local culture, industrial economy and the concept of sustainable development, achieving new internal development of cultural tourism. This study will summarize the operational mechanism of art intervention in rural practices through the case study of Maioxi Town, with the aim of providing a reference sample for other art intervention in rural areas practices across the country.
This study focuses on the adaptive reuse of idle buildings in traditional villages of southern Anhui from the perspective of Huizhou cultural translation, exploring the balance between cultural expression and functional adaptation. Taking Yanchi Village in Xiuning County, Huangshan City as a case study, a dual-subject demand framework for residents and tourists was established, and the Kano model was introduced to analyze the nonlinear relationship between cultural-spatial attributes and user satisfaction. Based on 200 valid questionnaires processed through SPSSAU, the findings show that Huizhou architectural form, material texture, and local material use are identified as “must-be attributes”, the absence of which significantly reduces satisfaction. Cultural symbol presentation and storytelling activities are classified as “one-dimensional attributes”, which strongly enhance satisfaction, whereas excessive commercialization and non-authentic expressions lead to “reverse attributes”. The results also reveal that residents emphasize functional authenticity and daily adaptability, while tourists value aesthetic novelty and cultural experience. Accordingly, a three-level cultural translation design framework—“basic preservation, experiential enhancement, and contextual shaping”—is proposed to achieve a dynamic balance between authenticity and innovation. This research enriches the application of cultural translation theory in architectural renewal and provides methodological support for the revitalization of traditional villages and the contemporary expression of Huizhou culture.
Taking the “Sichuan Good Governance” platform in Sichuan Province as a case study, this paper explores the aesthetic practices of digital rural governance from three dimensions: functional beauty, emotional beauty, and spiritual and cultural beauty, based on the theory of life aesthetics. The study finds that the “Sichuan Good Governance” platform enhances governance efficiency by optimizing interface design, boosts villagers’ sense of participation through gamified incentives, and promotes cultural identity and traditional heritage through digital means, thereby achieving an aesthetic transformation of governance. The research suggests that digital rural governance should not only meet functional needs but also focus on emotional experiences and cultural belonging, facilitating a shift in governance models from a management-oriented to a service-oriented approach.
In response to homogenization and cultural alienation arising from externally driven landscape-making in contemporary rural construction, this study seeks to explore a new pathway for endogenous rural development grounded in “living aesthetics.”The study employs action research and comparative case study methods to conduct an in-depth analysis of two micro-intervention rural construction practices in which the author directly participated. The findings indicate that rural cultural resilience and a sense of emotional belonging do not stem from large-scale external construction but are deeply embedded in distinctive and vibrant “everyday narratives.”Villagers’ life trajectories, memories attached to old objects, wisdom derived from daily labor, and neighborhood ecological ethics contain rich aesthetic value, yet these qualities are often overlooked in conventional design processes. Accordingly, the paper distills a design strategy that replaces “planning” with “awakening.”This strategy argues that future rural design trajectories should shift from external landscape production toward the activation and resonance of internal living aesthetics. This shift relies on a social design approach centered on “narrative excavation” and the “performance of the everyday,” which activates villagers’ agency and thereby cultivates place-based communities with stronger cultural resilience and emotional attachment. This study offers a practical framework for future rural design that goes beyond physical environmental transformation and targets emotional resonance and cultural regeneration, providing important theoretical and practical reference for promoting sustainable rural development within the context of urban-rural integration.
In the context of the deepening implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, art therapy, as an interdisciplinary practice integrating psychological intervention and aesthetic experience, has gradually become an important approach to activating endogenous rural vitality and restoring rural cultural ecology. From the perspective of local aesthetics, this study focuses on how art therapy, through the aesthetic reconstruction of rural natural imagery, attachment to the land, and customary traditions, achieves a dual restoration of rural psychological order and cultural identity.
In the context of the comprehensive implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, rural ecological aesthetic education, as an important carrier of ethnic cultural inheritance and educational equity, is becoming increasingly prominent. However, in reality, challenges such as uneven resource distribution, insufficient integration of education, and intergenerational transmission gaps still exist. This article uses ecological aesthetics as the theoretical framework and proposes a logical chain of "ecological aesthetics—ecological aesthetic education—AI empowerment, " systematically exploring the applicability and practical pathways of artificial intelligence in rural ecological aesthetic education. Through a comparative analysis of Jingdezhen ceramics and Miao batik, the study finds that Jingdezhen ceramics has formed a relatively mature model in the integration of industry and education and digital innovation, while Miao batik holds unique advantages in ecological wisdom and cultural connotation, but lacks systematic inheritance. Based on the insights from these cases, the study suggests that, in promoting AI empowerment in rural ecological aesthetic education, it is essential to adhere to the value orientation of ecological aesthetics and construct a systematic path from five dimensions: value guidance, educational innovation, collaborative mechanisms, digital communication, and risk prevention, to achieve the organic unity of technology application, ecological protection, and cultural inheritance.
From the perspectives of theoretical construction and methodological exploration, this paper systematically elucidates the application value and implementation approaches of topology in the study of artistic rural development. By analyzing the theoretical coupling mechanism between topology and artistic rural development, the paper proposes the core concept of a“cultural topology relationship network”and establishes an analytical methodology that encompasses three dimensions: cultural gene encoding, spatial relationship analysis, and dynamic adaptability assessment. This research overcomes the limitations of traditional artistic rural development studies, which rely on static descriptions and case-based experiences. It offers relational thinking and systematic analysis tools, providing a new paradigm for the transition of artistic rural development from practical exploration to theoretical construction. The paper also explores the potential applications of topological approaches in optimizing rural cultural infrastructure networks and establishing mechanisms for cultural heritage preservation and innovation, thus offering new theoretical perspectives and methodological support for the revitalization of rural cultures.
This paper analyzes the essential differences between design and art, pointing out that art centers on subjective spiritual expression, while design is inherently oriented to rationally solving real-world problems. The two disciplines differ drastically in their value orientations and practical logics. Design is not a subordinate branch of art; instead, it is an interdisciplinary discipline integrating art, science, engineering, and humanities, which has already laid the academic foundation and gained practical significance for becoming an independent discipline category. Based on the adjustment of the national discipline catalog and the development trend of design science, this paper proposes to take design science as the guidance, and promote the disciplinary breakthrough through three paths: cognitive disembedding, education model innovation and industrial ecosystem construction. It advocates the implementation of the “Design + X” interdisciplinary integrated training model, driving design to shift from visual beautification to scientific decision-making, and from the end of the industrial chain to top-level planning. Furthermore, it strives to build an independent disciplinary ecosystem with scientific rationality, artistic warmth, systematic capability and practical implementation effect, enabling design discipline to act as the core engine for supporting new quality productive forces, empowering industrial upgrading and social governance.
