Translating Living Heritage for Platform Circulation:Intersemiotic Reconfiguration, Multilingual Paratexts, and Visible Reception in The Datong Code
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61360/BoniGHSSCH262020600101Keywords:
intangible cultural heritage, intersemiotic translation, audiovisual translation, paratext, micro-short dramaAbstract
This article examines intangible cultural heritage (ICH) micro-short drama as a translation problem. Focusing on The Datong Code, a five-episode AI-assisted series produced for international circulation in 2026, it asks how living heritage is reconfigured into a platform-ready audiovisual quest and how English-French paratexts frame that quest for overseas publics. The study combines intersemiotic translation, audiovisual translation, paratext theory, and platformization studies. Its corpus consists of five official episode synopses, the English and French Episode 1 pages, institutional production materials, and dated aggregate circulation data. The analysis shows that craft knowledge is not merely shortened. It is redistributed across objects, gesture, setting, sound, sensory encounter, and plot. English and French paratexts retain key heritage terminology while using game vocabulary and institutional labels to lower the threshold of entry. Reported overseas circulation reached 8.67 million views and 188,000 likes by 21 March 2026. These figures demonstrate visibility rather than cultural comprehension. The article proposes platformed heritage translation as a framework for studying the transformation of living heritage across semiotic, linguistic, and platform environments.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Dandan WU, Yiming MA
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