In recent years , following the rap-id social and economic development and the impact of globalization , the traditional modes of production and lifestyle of the minorities on the border of Yun-nan have undergone unprecedented changes .Many non -renewable ethnic traditional cultural re-sources are decreasing or in danger of disappea-ring , especially among ethnic minorities with small populations .The situation of their traditional cul-ture is much more serious than other minorities . How to strengthen the protection and transmission of the cultures of ethnic minorities with small popu-lations has already become a hot topic in academic circles.Taking the Bulang as an example , a mi-nority with a small population in Yunnan , this arti-cle discusses the approaches and methods of pro-tection and transmission of the Bulang ’ s ethnic culture by using modern technology to systematize information resource management ” , so as to pro-vide a framework for the digitization of the ethnic minorities’ cultural resource .
The Bulang are one of the 15 unique ethnic minorities in Yunnan , and are also a cross -border minority with a small population .The digital re-sources of Bulang ’ s cultural heritage can be di-vided into two categories:The first category is ma-terial culture and tangible cultural heritage .This mainly includes:1 ) historical sites;and 2 ) secu-lar architecture .The second category is oral and intangible cultural heritage .It mainly includes:1) language and words; 2 ) folk costume; 3 ) folk songs and dances;4 ) folk literature;5 ) religious culture;6 ) traditional technologies ; 7 ) folklore and festivals ;and 8) folk medicine.
Different from “hard” resources, such as nat-ural resource and economic resource , ethnic cul-tural resources are a kind of “soft” resource which is difficult to quantify or assess .It depends on the people’ s subjective assessment .In addition, we should notice two issues related to the digitization of ethnic cultural heritage resources: The first is whether or not the cultural heritage resources could be “systematized”” or digitized using present tech-niques; the second is whether or not the cultural heritage has the value to be “systemematized” or digitized . For the purpose of systematizing the management of the resource and information of the ethnic cultural resources , doing a digital collection of cultural resources is the first step .Then , after making an assessment of the value of the ethnic cultural resources , we should adopt different “sys-tematized information resource management ” tech-niques with regard to the different types of re-sources.
Taking the systematized management of “Bu-lang singing with playing stringed instruments tra-dition” as an example , in addition to the digitiza-tion of the melodic text of the folk song , the related cultural space , the inheritors , musical instru-ments, other objects (such as costume, other arti-cles for use ) should also be protected through digi-tization .The digitization of “Bulang ’ s singing with playing stringed instruments” should be done on several levels .The first level is the digitization of text;the second is the digitization of image;the third is the building of a three -dimensional im-age;and the fourth is making virtual products .
Ethnic culture is not only a representation of the ethnic spiritual world , but is also a crystalliza-tion of material culture and spiritual culture created by the ethnic group .This discussion of the digiti-zation of the cultural resources of the Bulang , an ethnic group with a small population , can provide some experience and reference for the protection and transmission of China ’ s ethnic cultures .