Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5, 1805-1818 2024 Publisher: Learning Gate DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate * Correspondence: ssuhaily@gmail.com Design and practices of Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and creative products based on narrative design Waner Zhao1, S. Siti Suhaily1*, Azmi Bin Mansor1 1Product Design Department, School of The Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang Malaysia; zhaowaner@student.usm.my (W.Z.), ssuhaily@gmail.com (S.S.S.) azmi.manasor@usm.my (A.B.M.) Abstract: This paper examines the design theories and practices of Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products by combining narrative design methods with the theme cultural factors. It proposes a narrative design method model for Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and innovative products focusing on the narrative theme, path, reconstruction, and expression based on a comprehensive literature review, a market survey and consumer analysis. The findings confirmed the internal logic of the three points of designers, cultural and creative products, and consumers. It suggests that the typical Zhuangyuan culture resources, such as the Zhuangyuan Pavilion, Haiyang Academy, Zhuangyuan hats and costumes, and Zhuangyuan handwriting in Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture, are prototypes. It concludes that the cultural and creative products should be created around some narrative themes, including Zhuangyuan’s ideals of “studying hard and cultivating the character” and “striving for a rank and working for the country." Keywords: Cultural and creative products, Design methods, Huizhou culture, Narrative design. 1. Introduction This paper combines the narrative design method with thematic cultural factors to examine the design theory and practice of Huizhou's champion cultural creative products. Based on a comprehensive literature review, market investigation and consumer analysis, it proposes a narrative design method model for Huizhou's top cultural creative products, focusing on narrative theme, path, reconstruction and expression. The results confirm the internal logic of designers, culturally creative products and consumers. The path of people pointing to things, things passing things, and things being emotional have realized the narrative goal of Huizhou's top cultural creative products. The typical cultural resources in Huizhou Champion culture are the prototypes. The typical cultural resources include the champion pavilion, Haiyang Academy, champion hat and costume, and Champion hand. It suggests that cultural and creative products should be created around narrative themes, including "studying hard, cultivating oneself," and "striving for power and profit and serving the country." In August 2021, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Strengthening the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in China. The Opinions proposed that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China should encourage the rational use of intangible cultural heritage resources for artistic creation and creative design to improve people’s quality of life and cultural connotation. Subsequently, during his visit to Suide County in Shaanxi Province, General Secretary Xi Jinping stated that China should adhere to the evolution and growth of refined traditional Chinese culture in new and creative ways. He also required finding the connection between traditional culture and modern life to meet people’s growing needs for a better life continuously. 1806 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate Huizhou culture is a unique regional culture with a wide range of content and a complete collection. Hence, Huizhou culture is among China's three most distinguished schools, Dunhuang and Tibetan. Huizhou culture can be connected with modern life, integrating traditional cultural genes with people’s aesthetic and functional needs in contemporary society (Zeng, 2022; Gonçalves and Cash, 2021). Thus, products can be creatively designed to pass on traditional culture in innovation and preserve it in development (Jelinčić, 2021). The creative product design of Huizhou culture is a general term for design activities. Based on a specific cultural theme, these activities involve selecting and extracting representative cultural elements from traditional cultural resources (Xu, 2020) and creating a series of products through creative transformation. As people’s living standards continue to improve over time (Tu, 2008), people have a more robust demand for culture. They constantly seek to express their individuality and display their aesthetics and tastes, propelling the fervor of traditional culture. It implies the transformation of future product design from functional design at the material level to inspirational and personalized design (Chen, 2021). Narrative means the narrator recreates historical events using sound, image, language, and text based on their creativity and imagination. Since the 1960s, narrative poetics, narrative grammar, structural analysis of narrative and other related narrative theories have been present in Western literary studies and criticism (Li, 2021). Tzvetan Todorov, a renowned French literary theorist, introduced the concept of narratology in his book “Grammar of the Decameron” in 1969. Since then, narratology has been widely researched by Western scholars. The research field of narratology has been expanding from literature and history to sociology, architecture, and education, gradually forming an interdisciplinary theoretical research system. The narrative is universally present in society, and narrative design is based on narratology (Shang, 2016). It has been widely used in architectural, environmental, media, and product design. Narrative design involves the interaction of the narrative subject (designer), narrative carrier (product) and narrative object (consumer). Using narrative as a way of expression, designers enable deep exchanges between consumers and products to evoke consumers’ psychological perceptions and emotional experiences (Peng, 2019). Narrative design mainly comprises the information expression design of both narrative content and narrative mode. Storytelling is an innovative design method that synthetically considers, integrates and arranges the elements of design objects, consumer behavior and usage environment. Thus, the product’s functional attributes can be highly combined with the spiritual characteristics of conveying cultural connotations. Through the narrative transformation process of humans, things, incidents and emotions, designers can interact with products and consumers to trigger users’ cultural perceptions of cultural and creative products. Then, users can comprehend the humanistic spirit of traditional culture and satisfy their self-experience and individual needs (Wang, 2020). Based on this, this paper adopts the narrative design method and integrates the themes, levels and plots in the narrative design of the product based on the traditional Huizhou culture. Based on this, narrators can interact with narrative objects to meet people’s diverse needs. 2. Structural Analysis of Huizhou Zhuangyuan Culture Huizhou, initially known as Shezhou or Xin’an, is located at the foot of Yellow Mountain. Huizhou originated in the third year of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty (1121). The Huizhou area is a prefecture with six counties (Shexian County, Yixian County, Xiuning County, Qimen County, Tunxi District, Huizhou District and part of Huangshan District in Huangshan City). It is subordinate to Jixi County in Xuancheng City and Wuyuan County in Jiangxi Province. With a long history of 866 years, the six counties have always been under Huizhou, which contributed to the formation and development of the Huizhou culture system. Huizhou culture originated in the late Northern Song Dynasty, flourished in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and declined in the late Qing Dynasty, covering almost all fields of culture. Huizhou culture is the new stage of Yanhuang culture and represents the historical deposits of traditional Chinese Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism cultures, revealing the mystery of Eastern culture. Huizhou culture covers all fields of the social life of the Huizhou people. It covers the 1807 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate Huizhou clan, famous figures of Huizhou history, Xin’an science, Xin’an education, Xin’an medicine, Huizhou school of down-to-earth learning, and Huizhou documents. Also, it involves Huizhou opera, Xin’an painting school, Huizhou seal carving, Huizhou prints, Huizhou architecture, Huizhou villages, Huizhou folklore, Huizhou cuisine, Huizhou land system, and Huizhou geography. In ancient Huizhou, there were many talented persons and private schools, and many local students passed the imperial examinations. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, 996 candidates from Huizhou became Juren (举人) in imperial studies at the provincial level. Six hundred eighteen became Jinshi (进士) in the highest imperial examinations, and 18 were titled Zhuangyuan (Number One Scholar, a title conferred on the one who came first in the highest imperial study) (only in the Qing dynasty). Numerous outstanding figures emerged, including Xi Zhu, Dawei Cheng, Daokun Wang, Sheng Zhu, Yong Jiang, Zhen Dai, Zhengxie Yu, Maoyin Wang, Shi Hu, Xingzhi Tao, Binghong Huang, and Xueyan Hu. Also, there was a large group of Huizhou merchants with far-reaching influence. The ancient Huizhou people valued education, recited scriptures, and read historical books since childhood. They were systematically educated and nurtured by Confucianism. As local sayings go in Huizhou: “If you do not educate your son, it is better to raise a fat pig;” “Even though you accumulate much wealth, it is no better than studying;” “Even if you are rich, you cannot delay your education, as it is no use to accumulate wealth.” Ideologically, the Huizhou people strongly agree that studying is the best thing in the world. Huizhou people believed merchants cared about making a living, while Confucian scholars cared about learning. Also, merchants were interested in profits, while Confucian scholars were interested in reputation. Therefore, Huizhou merchants are talented in business, and they like Confucianism. Also, they sponsored academies, private schools and voluntary schools to promote the prosperity of education in ancient Huizhou. In its long history, ancient Huizhou has nurtured the distinctive Zhuangyuan culture and cultivated numerous talented people such as Zhuangyuan during the Ming and Qing dynasties. The cultural expression of things, incidents, humans and souls visualize the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture with regional characteristics. It covers various architectural relics and sites of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture, the life stories of scholars titled Zhuangyuan and the implicit cultural genes and value system Table 1. Table 1. Structure of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture. Cultural level Type Content Artifacts culture Zhuangyuan cultural relics and figures Relics: Cultural Museum of Qing Dynasty Imperial Examinations (Moral Museum), Haiyang Academy, Zhuangyuan Pavilion, Linxi Yao’s Private School, Xuan Huang’s Former Residence, Taichun Zhou’s Former Residence, Antao Wan Enlightenment Museum, School History Museum of Xiuning Middle School, Chengjin Archway Figures: Yuanfeng Cheng, Wenzhi Cao, Zhenyong Cao, Geng Huang, Youqi Dai, Xuan Huang, Siyong Huang, Yi Cheng, Xi Zhu, Zhen Dai, Xingzhi Tao, Shi Hu, Xueyan Hu Institutional culture Narrative and folklore Village rules and customs: Deying Jin’s handwritten family motto: “Even in a small village with only ten families, you can hear the voices of reading aloud;” “If you do not educate your son, it is better to raise a fat pig;” Even though you accumulate much wealth, it is no better than studying;” “Even if you are rich, you cannot delay your education, as it is no use to accumulate wealth.” Huizhou education records: The scroll calligraphy of the Chinese character “福” (blessing in Chinese) presented by the 1808 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate Emperor of Qianlong to Zhuangyuan Deying Jin; Eight- character couplet in running script handwritten by Zhuangyuan Siyong Huang from Xiuning County; Zhuangyuan culture and knowledge of imperial examinations; secret files of the imperial family; “The First Zhuangyuan County in China--Xiuning;” List of Successful Candidates in Imperial Examinations; the book titled “The Road to Forbidden City from Xiuning;” digital versions of Education Stories in Xiuning; the dance titled “Cultivating Zhuangyuan”; Zhuangyuan drama. Spiritual culture The hidden spirit and pursuit behind Zhuangyuan Zhuangyuan culture genes: Benevolence, diligence, courage and perseverance, tolerance, integrity and other intrinsic qualities; “devoting to self-cultivation for high aspirations;” “studying hard, striving for a rank and working for the country.” 3. Narrative Design Methods of Huizhou Zhuangyuan Cultural and Creative Products In the era of the experience economy, enterprises should satisfy consumers’ functional, spiritual and emotional needs for cultural and creative products. Moreover, enterprises need to make consumers perceive the value of cultural and innovative products in creating an atmosphere of experience and spiritual enjoyment. The narrative is storytelling. Narrative product design conveys the narrative theme through design elements and expressions, allowing products to interpret and tell stories. Consumers can perceive the people and events behind cultural and creative products while using and touching them. Furthermore, they communicate with these products emotionally, thus spreading traditional culture and interacting with multiple subjects. As a research tool and methodology, the narrative design breaks textual language and graphical design limitations and provides a new research idea for modern design. Designers should uncover the elements of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture and guide the values and emotions of consumers while adopting narrative design for Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products. Two goals should be achieved in the end. Firstly, Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and creative products should display the regional characteristics and uniquely human features of ancient Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture. Secondly, through the creative transformation of narrative design, the connection between traditional culture and modern life should be realized, enabling consumers to resonate emotionally, thus passing on and transmitting Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture. Based on this, the model of narrative design methods for Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products was proposed. (Figure 1). 1809 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate Figure 1. The design model of Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and creative products. The narrative design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and creative products is built around the narrative theme, path, reconstruction, and expression. It emphasizes the intrinsic logic of designers, cultural and innovative products, and consumers. Such internal logic involves referring to things by humans, transmitting incidents via items and arousing emotions with incidents to achieve narrative purposes (Wu and Li, 2021). Firstly, we should clarify the narrative theme. Guided by cultural values, we should collect and explore Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural resources to satisfy consumers’ needs. Following the requirements of identifiable and expressible themes of narrative design, we should analyze and refine the narrative themes of Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and creative products. Secondly, we should determine the narrative path of Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and creative products to cater to consumers’ experience of senses, the process of use and spiritual resonance. We should meet consumers’ sensory experiences by designing shapes, colors, materials and other product forms. Product use and function design should meet the consumer’s usage experience. Moreover, the cultural implication of the product design should trigger consumers to think profoundly and generate spiritual resonance. Thirdly, narrative reconstruction should be completed. The representative elements of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture should be extracted, deconstructed and innovated according to consumers’ behavior and demand for using cultural and creative products. Then, we should create narrative images that contain rich connotations of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture and integrate them into product design for narrative reconstruction (Di, 2015; Liu, Zhou and Zhong, 2022). Fourthly, we should realize the narrative expression. Expressing the design language of cultural and creative products should allow consumers to appreciate the narrative theme and cultural connotation of Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and innovative products while using and experiencing them. Thus, it can reinforce the value recognition of Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products, evoke the 1810 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate emotional resonance of consumers, and spread and communicate Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture (Yang, 2017; Wang, Tao and Zhi, 2022). 4. Narrative Design Practice of Huizhou Zhuangyuan Cultural and Creative Products Known as the first county of Zhuangyuan in China, Xiuning was awarded the title “Township of Zhuangyuan Culture in China” by the Chinese Folk Literature and Arts Association in 2014. Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture is carried by traditional Huizhou-style buildings such as the Chinese Zhuangyuan Museum, Zhuangyuan Pavilion and Haiyang Academy. It has clustered a series of Zhuangyuan cultural resources, such as Zhuangyuan’s examination papers, imperial plaques to Zhuangyuan, imperial plaques of Zhuangyuan’s military achievements and land register. Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture resources are mainly represented by traditional architecture (life scenes of Zhuangyuan studying), imperial gifts to Zhuangyuan, Zhuangyuan’s clothing and utensils, and Zhuangyuan’s handwriting. It also includes physical and video resources for tourists to visit and share, becoming the highlight of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture. Based on the narrative design method of Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products, we thought and designed Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products. Based on this, we intend to restore the scenes where Zhuangyuan lived, studied diligently, returned to his hometown with great honors, and worked for the entire country. 4.1. Huizhou Zhuangyuan Culture Logo Design Through field research on Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture in Xiuning County, Huangshan City, we collected representative objects, pictures, and written materials that reflect Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture. Moreover, after analyzing the collected materials, we clarified the design idea of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture. We designed a collection of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logos based on the main idea of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture. In Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture, we selected the most representative black, white, red and blue. The black, white and red colors accommodate the buildings and costumes, and the highly saturated colors create a strong color impact and are more eye-catching. 4.1.1. Huizhou Zhuangyuan Culture Logo 1 Guided by consumers’ emotional needs for cultural and creative products, we adopted the narrative design method. We took the prototypes of traditional Huizhou architecture, such as the Zhuangyuan Museum, Zhuangyuan Pavilion and Haiyang Academy, as design subjects. Moreover, we integrated the elements of the window decorations of Huizhou architecture and Zhuangyuan’s utensils (brushes) to refine the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo (Logo 1). Then, we creatively designed and merged the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo with consumers’ daily necessities. Relying on the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo, we refined Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative product design’s narrative theme as “studying hard and cultivating the character.” In this way, we expect to convey to consumers the noble character of Zhuangyuan, who keeps lonely, studying hard and cultivating their temperament. Thus, it can evoke the image of Zhuangyuan as “diligent, benevolent and honest” in people’s minds. The expression of design language allows consumers to associate it with their lives, recall and resonate when using cultural and creative products (Wang, 2022). We extracted creative elements from Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural resources that can reflect the narrative theme and selected two typical Huizhou architectural sites, Haiyang Academy and Zhuangyuan Pavilion. The creative design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan's architectural sites resulted in the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo showing scenes of Zhuangyuan’s study and life. We extracted the architectural sites' external form and details, broke the original composition, and flattened the elements. Then, we reconstructed the background image by applying modern design concepts and techniques and incorporated the eaves and corners of the building into the background image. The picture’s theme ultimately falls on the window’s position in the center of the picture. The carving inside the window combines the form of a brush with the color blocks of mountains and rivers. It symbolizes using the brush as a weapon to gallop across the country. Huizhou architecture's unique Ma Tau Wall pattern is 1811 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate incorporated into the logo’s shape. The colors were extracted from the colors of the walls and eaves of Haiyang Shuyuan and Zhuangyuan Pavilion. Black and light gray were dominant, complemented by red representing Zhuangyuan. Finally, the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo (Logo1) was designed to reflect the theme of “studying hard and cultivating the character” of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture. (Figure 2). Figure 2. Design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture with the theme of “studying hard and cultivating the character.” Based on black, white and red, Logo1 is inspired by Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture's traditional architecture and the Zhuangyuan hats' color. Logo 1’s design is extracted from the shape of the Ma Tau Wall, the eaves of conventional Huizhou architecture, and the open window’s pattern, which is a brush combined with the landscape. It implies the Chinese saying that everyone should read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles.” 4.1.2. Huizhou Zhuangyuan Culture Logo 2 The narrative design was applied, and the representative prototype of Zhuangyuan hats in Zhuangyuan costumes was selected as the central part of the design. Then, the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo (Logo 2) was extracted by incorporating the elements of Zhuangyuan’s official uniform, utensil box and test papers. The Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo integrates the cultural products consumers use daily. Given this, the Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products collection was designed. The narrative theme of Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and creative products collection (Logo2) is “striving for a rank and working for the country. “It conveys to consumers the spirit of Zhuangyuan, which is to devote themselves to self-cultivation for high aspirations. Zhuangyuan has the ambitious ideal of diligently studying and practicing to gain fame and success and serve the country. This design evokes the image of Zhuangyuan in people’s minds as “diligent and hardworking, with the country in mind.” It aims to enable consumers to perceive Zhuangyuan’s image of “hard work and patriotism” while using the Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products series. It also triggers 1812 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate reflection, association and resonance (Santosh et al., 2019). In the design of the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo, the Zhuangyuan hat, the official uniform of Zhuangyuan, the utensil box and the test papers of Zhuangyuan, which can reflect the narrative theme, were chosen as the creative prototypes of the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo. These objects’ creative elements were extracted, reconstructed, and combined to create the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo. Because of this, it can present Zhuangyuan’s patriotic sentiment of studying hard, attaining success in imperial examinations and serving the country. The external form of Zhuangyuan hats and the structural elements of the main parts were extracted. Red, yellow, blue, green, purple, gray and white were extracted from Zhuangyuan’s hats, official uniforms, utensil boxes and test papers. Based on this, we adopted modern art design means and methods, abandoned the original composition and sequence of elements, and flattened them. At the same time, we reconfigured the overall structure and color scheme of the Zhuangyuan hat. Zhuangyuan hat is decorated in red with a small amount of blue scattered across it. The tip of the hat is a deformed shape of the osmanthus flower. It is spliced in segments, with the top part extending out of the outer edge of the hat. It symbolizes winning in imperial examinations. The final result is the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo (Logo 2), thus realizing the theme of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture as “striving for a rank and working for the country.” (Figure 3). Figure 3. Design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture with the theme of “striving for a rank and working for the country.” Logo 2 is derived from the red and blue design of the Zhuangyuan hat to increase memory points. The basic form is the deformation of the Zhuangyuan hat, and the top part extends to the outside, meaning that the person takes first place in imperial examinations. Three oblique stripes were added to the front of the Zhuangyuan hat to represent the light, indicating to bring glory to the ancestors. 4.2. Consumer Demand Analysis of Huizhou Zhuangyuan Cultural and Creative Products The design of cultural and creative products represents a way to pass on and protect traditional culture. By realizing the market value of cultural and creative products, we can promote the inheritance 1813 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate and protection of conventional culture, increase the income of the people in the place of origin of culture, and motivate people to protect traditional culture. Cultural and creative products are designed to disseminate traditional culture and realize market value. One of the primary forms of conventional culture dissemination is to present it as cultural and creative products. Consumers’ purchase of cultural and creative products realizes the market value of these products and accomplishes the dissemination of traditional culture. How can consumers accept cultural and creative products? We need to capture different consumers’ preferences and needs accurately. To this end, the data were collected through online and offline consumer questionnaires. The following conclusions were drawn from data analysis: Firstly, cultural and creative products are mainly consumed by young people aged 20 -35. Secondly, cultural and creative products should feature regional specialties and can be used as souvenirs for tourists and daily necessities. Thirdly, consumers are more willing to buy cultural and creative products priced between RMB 10-50. Fourthly, consumers expect that cultural and creative products can combine tradition and modernity. 4.3. Design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan Cultural and Creative Products We applied the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo to mobile phone cases, postcards, notebooks and bookmarks. These products are portable, inexpensive and in line with the connotation of Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture. The design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products can finally meet consumer demands, lead to consumer purchases, and spread the traditional Huizhou culture. 4.3.1. Cultural and Creative Products Design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan Culture Logo By analyzing the market survey results on the consumers of cultural and creative products, we creatively blended the Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture logo with daily necessities. Thus, when using cultural and innovative products, consumers can perceive and experience Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s group image as “diligent, benevolent and honest” and their ideal of “devoting to self-cultivation for high aspirations.” It highlights two narrative themes: “studying hard and cultivating the character” and “striving for a rank and working for the country.” Through the penetration of narrative plots and thoughtful expressions, we can guide consumers’ perception of Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s image. Based on this, consumers may identify with the spirit of Huizhou Zhuangyuan, regard Zhuangyuan as “diligent and hardworking, with the country in mind,” and perceive their spirit of “hard work and patriotism.” Thus, it can transmit Huizhou culture and enhance cultural confidence and patriotic sentiment (Park et al., 2015). 4.3.2. Product Design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan Culture Logo Mobile phone cases were designed with the elements of Osmanthus and Zhuangyuan’s portrait in black and white, mainly highlighting the prominent position of the logo. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Huizhou clan schools and private schools planted osmanthus flowers to remind students of complex study and expect to win laurels. The foreground's top flower and the blue signify wealth and good fortune. Traditionally, the portrait of Zhuangyuan implies blessings. (Figure 4). 1814 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate Figure 4. Design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products--mobile phone case. The logo was designed on the postcard based on the principle of simplicity and atmosphere. Its colors were still extracted from the architecture and costumes. The calligraphy font was used for texts to derive the logo in line with the cultural prototype Figure 5. 1815 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate Figure 5. Design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products—postcards. 1816 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate Since Zhuangyuan culture’s original characteristic is studying, we chose the products that match the symbolic meaning of Zhuangyuan culture as the carrier. The price of the products can match the psychological worth of cultural and creative products. Therefore, notebooks and bookmarks are added to the innovative design of Zhuangyuan culture. (Figure 6). Figure 6. Design of Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products-- notebooks and bookmarks. 5. Conclusion The ancient Huizhou people valued education, read scriptures and history since childhood, and were systematically nurtured by Confucianism. In its long history, ancient Huizhou has enabled the distinctive Zhuangyuan culture and cultivated numerous talented people such as Zhuangyuan during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture is a regional culture in which Huizhou people highly value education in their minds, establish conventions, and proactively invest in education in their actions. It is a systematic cultural expression that integrates people, incidents, things and ideas. Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and creative products, created and designed by narrative design methods, can express the designs and values more extensively. The Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and innovative products are designed based on narrative structure, transforming physical objects into incidents, people and ideas. It shows readable and vivid images of the cultural and creative products and creates more immersive narrative scenarios, thus leading consumers to think deeply. Therefore, the design objectives of Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and creative products can be achieved. By combining the narrative design approach with Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture resources, we proposed a model for designing Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products (Wang, 2020). Focusing on the narrative theme, path, reconstruction, and expression, we explained the internal logic among designers, cultural and creative products, and consumers. This logic involves referring to things by humans, transmitting incidents via items and arousing emotions with incidents. This way, the narrative objectives of Huizhou Zhuangyuan’s cultural and creative products can be achieved. The typical Zhuangyuan culture resources include the Zhuangyuan Pavilion, Haiyang Academy, Zhuangyuan hats and costumes, and Zhuangyuan handwriting in Huizhou. We introduced the prototypes of these resources as design cases for Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products, and we designed these products by applying the narrative design method. The narrative themes are 1817 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate “studying hard and cultivating the character” and “striving for a rank and working for the country.” Thus, designers systematically analyzed the creation and interpretation of Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products, consumers’ use and the emotional identity of these products. It is a new attempt to combine narrative design with Huizhou Zhuangyuan culture. Also, it offers excellent theoretical and practical implications for developing cultural and creative industries in the ancient Huizhou region and spreading Huizhou culture in the future. The design model of Huizhou Zhuangyuan cultural and creative products is proposed, centered on the narrative theme, path, reconstruction, and expression. Copyright: © 2024 by the authors. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). References [1] Bi, W., Wang, G. M. (2021). Local Cultural IP Development and Cultural Creative Design Based on Big Data and the Internet of Things. Mobile Information Systems. [2] Chen, S. (2021). Creative Design for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Guangxi Puppet Shows. Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Communication and Engineering Science in Art and Design, 267-273. [3] Di, Y. (2015). Image Construction and Communication of the Visual Narrative. Art & Design, (2):130. [4] Gonçalves, M. and Cash, P. (2021). The life cycle of creative ideas: Towards a dual-process theory of ideation. Design Studies, 72 [5] Jelinčić, D. A. (2021). Indicators for Cultural and Creative Industries’ Impact Assessment on Cultural Heritage and Tourism. Sustainability, 13(14): 7732-7732. [6] Li, X. M. (2021). Dynamic, Metaphor and Rising Dimension: Narrative Design in Visual Communication. Art & Design, (9):29. [7] Liu, P., Zhou, M. N., Zhong, K. Y. (2022). Research on the Narrative Design of the Characteristic Towns from the Perspective of “Five-State Integration” -- Take Shitang Town of Wenling City as an Example. Design, 35(21):120- 122. [8] Park et al. (2015). An Exploratory Research for the Study based on the Creative Design Education of the Multidisciplinary Convergence. Journal of Digital Design, 15(1): 609-620. [9] Peng, L. (2019). Narrative Expression of Regional Creative Product Design. Hunan Packaging, (6): 20-21. [10] Santosh, M. et al. (2019). A mixed reality tool forend-users’ participation in early creative design tasks. International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing , 13(1): 163-182. [11] Shang, B. W. (2016). The Narrative Transition: Connotations and Implications. English and American Literary Studies, (2): 357. [12] Tetiana, H. (2022). Formation of Art Design Skills (Crossover Point) in the Process of University Education. Acta Educationis Generalis, 12(1): 146-156. [13] Tu, S. G. (2008). The Narrative of Design - On Immaterial Design in Postmodern Designs. New Arts, (5):101. [14] Wang, C., Tao, Z. X., Zhi, J. Y. (2022). Narrative Design Method in Literary Themes Tourist Train. Packaging Engineering, 43(16):122-128. [15] Wang, H. Y. (2020). Narrative Design of Cultural and Creative Products Based on Experience Level. Packaging Engineering, (16): 330-333. [16] Wang, H. Y. (2020). Research on Narrative Design of Cultural and Creative Products Based on Experience Level. Packaging Engineering, 41(16):330-335. [17] Wang, Y. Q. (2022). Research on the Narrative Design of the Visual Brand Image of the Xiangtang Mountain Grottoes Based on Flame Pattern. Hebei University of Technology. [18] Wu, W., Li, L. J. X. (2021). The Methodology and Practice of Narratives in the Design of Huxiang Red-themed Cultural and Creative Products. Art & Design, (9):42-45. [19] Xu, B. (2020). The inheritance and creative design of traditional color scheme based on modern consumer’s psychological perception: Taking Chinese traditional decorative pattern’s color collocation as an example. Color Research & Application, 46(4): 856-870. [20] Yang, H. Z. (2017). Intangible Cultural Heritage and Cultural Creative Product Design . Chinese National Academy of Arts. [21] Zeng, F. M. (2022). Application Values and Paths of Traditional Decorative Patterns in Cultural and Creative Design. Frontiers in Art Research, 4.0(1.0) [22] This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. “ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 1818 Edelweiss Applied Science and Technology ISSN: 2576-8484 Vol. 8, No. 5: 1805-1818, 2024 DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i5.1914 © 2024 by the authors; licensee Learning Gate About the Author: [23] Wan’er Zhao (1994.8) is a female Han Chinese from Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, and a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Arts, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Her research interests are cultural and creative product design and industrial design. Email: a1994121zl@163.com