TRANSLATING THE CULTURAL AESTHETICS OF SUN WUKONG INTO INTERACTIVE HERITAGE COMMUNICATION: A FOUR-DIMENSIONAL INNOVATIVE FRAMEWORK

Digital technologies have expanded opportunities for preserving and communicating cultural heritage, yet digital adaptation can reduce complex cultural meanings to visually appealing but culturally shallow experiences. This problem is especially relevant to interactive heritage media, where symbolic depth, narrative structure, and aesthetic logic must be translated into forms that users can perceive, explore, and interpret. Existing studies have examined digital heritage experience, interactive storytelling, and user engagement, but fewer studies explain how cultural aesthetics can be systematically transformed into interactive design mechanisms. This study proposes and empirically examines a 4-dimensional framework for translating the cultural aesthetics of Sun Wukong into interactive heritage communication. A sequential design-and-evaluation methodology was employed. In the first phase, selected Sun Wukong-related materials were analyzed to identify 4 aesthetic dimensions: visual, narrative, symbolic, and interactive. In the second phase, these dimensions were translated into a web-based interactive prototype through interface composition, narrative pathways, symbolic motifs, and user-driven exploration. In the third phase, the prototype was reviewed by 5 experts and evaluated with 400 users through measures of perception, engagement, cultural understanding, and satisfaction. The findings show that the 4 dimensions provided a coherent foundation for prototype design and generated positive user responses. Regression analysis further indicated that cultural understanding was the strongest predictor of user satisfaction. This study contributes a practical framework and translation mechanism for linking cultural aesthetics, interactive design, and user interpretation.