From regional symbols to educational spaces: Spatial design pathways for Zuojiang Huashan rock art heritage

Abstract

The Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Cultural Landscape is a World Cultural Heritage property in Guangxi, China, and an important material witness to Luoyue cultural memory. Although previous studies have examined its historical value, ethnic cultural meanings, symbolic semantics, artistic inheritance, tourism use, and study-tour potential, fewer studies have explained how its regional symbols can be systematically transformed into cultural heritage education resources through spatial design. In response to this gap, this study adopts a qualitative, literature-based research design that combines literature analysis, cultural interpretation, and symbolic semantic analysis. A total of 24 sources were retained for close reading after database retrieval, screening, and thematic classification. The analysis focused on four coding dimensions: heritage value, symbolic meaning, educational function, and spatial design translation. The findings show that the regional symbols of Zuojiang Huashan rock art support historical cognition, aesthetic education, cultural identity formation, and interdisciplinary learning. However, the current communication and educational use of these symbols remains constrained by limited public awareness, shallow symbolic translation, insufficient educational scenario construction, and a lack of experiential design innovation. To address these problems, the paper proposes a spatial design framework consisting of four interrelated pathways: symbol extraction and narrative translation, construction of layered educational spaces, immersive participatory experience, and coordinated integration of protection, communication, and activation. Unlike general exhibition or tourism-oriented approaches, this framework emphasizes the transformation of rock art motifs from static visual images into interpretable, experienceable, and communicable learning resources. The study, therefore, contributes to heritage education research by linking symbolic interpretation, spatial narrative, and public learning within the context of Luoyue cultural transmission.

Keywords: Zuojiang Huashan rock art; spatial design; cultural heritage education; Luoyue culture; symbolic interpretation; heritage revitalization.

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