Cultural Gene Mining and Green Communication Pathways of Ethnic Music from a Digital Humanities Perspective

Digital Technologies Research and Applications

Article

Cultural Gene Mining and Green Communication Pathways of Ethnic Music from a Digital Humanities Perspective

Downloads

https://doi.org/10.54963/dtra.v5i1.1774
Zhang, W., & Li, W. (2026). Cultural Gene Mining and Green Communication Pathways of Ethnic Music from a Digital Humanities Perspective. Digital Technologies Research and Applications, 5(1), 83–100. https://doi.org/10.54963/dtra.v5i1.1774
Volume 5 Issue 1: March 2026 (in progress)
Copyright (c) 2026 Wangshu Zhang, Weiyan Li
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Copyright

The authors shall retain the copyright of their work but allow the Publisher to publish, copy, distribute, and convey the work.

License

Digital Technologies Research and Applications (DTRA)  publishes accepted manuscripts under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Authors who submit their papers for publication by DTRA agree to have the CC BY 4.0 license applied to their work, and that anyone is allowed to reuse the article or part of it free of charge for any purpose, including commercial use. As long as the author and original source are properly cited, anyone may copy, redistribute, reuse, and transform the content.

Authors

  • Wangshu Zhang

    Conservatory of Music, Southwest University, Chongqing 400711, China
  • Weiyan Li

    Conservatory of Music, Southwest University, Chongqing 400711, China

Received: 27 October 2025; Revised: 22 December 2025; Accepted: 13 January 2026; Published: 6 February 2026

This study focuses on the extraction of ethnic music cultural genes and green communication pathways from a digital humanities perspective. Addressing the digital transformation challenges faced by traditional ethnic music preservation, the study constructed a multimodal cultural gene extraction framework integrating deep learning, natural language processing, and computer vision, extracting 687-dimensional cultural features from 12 types of ethnic music, with the model achieving an F1 score of 0.863. A green communication system based on a cloud-edge-device collaborative architecture with 291 nodes was designed, achieving an energy efficiency ratio of 36,300 people per kilowatt, representing a 62.8% improvement over traditional architectures and an annual carbon emission reduction of 1076.8 t. A real-time energy consumption monitoring and carbon emission accounting system covering six major scenarios was established, with mobile-end optimization rates reaching 52.3%, translating green communication into quantifiable indicators. Systematic solutions were proposed for technical challenges such as sample imbalance and high-dimensional sparsity, increasing data availability to 91.2% and system availability to 99.7%. The successful implementation of 12 projects validated the feasibility of translating theory into practice. The research outcomes provide a computable methodological paradigm for the digital preservation of ethnic music, with potential for extension to digital museums, online education, and other fields, contributing a Chinese solution to the green transformation of the global digital cultural industry.

Keywords:

Digital Humanities Ethnic Music Cultural Gene Extraction Sustainable Communication Cloud-Edge-End Architecture Carbon Emission Measurement Sustainable Development

References

  1. Ling, J.S.; Xiao, M. “Database as Method”: Digital Humanities Exploration in Ethnomusicology. J. Cent. Conserv. Music 2025, 3–15. (in Chinese)
  2. Berezutska, M. Ukrainian Music in Shaping of National Identity: A 65 Years-Long Creative Path of a Bandura Ensemble in the Dnipro City’s Cultural Space. Natl. Identities 2023, 25, 75–96.
  3. Fu, H.; Tu, J. Exploring the Influence of National Music Lessons on Subjective Well-Being, Self-Esteem, and National Identity among University Students: A Case Study from China. Front. Psychol. 2023, 14, 1151007.
  4. Bajpaie, S. The contested legacy of Rabindrasangīt: Musical nationalism, political symbolism, and the shaping of Bangladesh’s cultural identity. Ethnomusicol. Forum 2025, 34, 4–28.
  5. Sauvé, A.S.; Phillips, E.; Schiefelbein, W.; et al. Anti-Colonial Strategies in Cross-Cultural Music Science Research. Music Percept. 2023, 40, 277–292.
  6. Blim, D. Historical Records: Reissuing as Curatorial Practice in Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. J. Soc. Am. Music 2023, 17, 178–203.
  7. Hradsky, D. Composing Cultural Connections: Exploring Tensions of Creating Composite Ethnodramatic Characters. Qual. Inq. 2024, 30, 858–871.
  8. Huo, W. National Music Culture Inheritance and Music Education on College Students’ Anxiety. CNS Spectr. 2023, 28, S90.
  9. Constantiniu, T. The Emergence of the Romanian National School of Composition in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century: Between the Western Canon and the Resources of the Local Music. Nineteenth-Century Music Rev. 2023, 20, 551–574.
  10. Sunderland, N.; Barry, G.; Graham, P.; et al. Music across Generations: Exploring Intergenerational First Nations Musical Practices as Cultural Determinants of Health. Fam. Community Health 2024, 47, 294–303.
  11. Roos, L.-L. ‘It Is So Bad to Be Estonian:’ Parody Music Videos and Remediated Sites of National Cultural Memory on Estonian Public Broadcasting. J. Balt. Stud. 2023, 54, 377–394.
  12. Saltari, R.; Welch, G. Exploring the Culture of Greek Children’s Musical Games in the School Playground: An Ethnographic Study. Res. Stud. Music Educ. 2023, 45, 174–188.
  13. John, V.; Sigrid, R.; Heidi, S. Moral Economies in the Community of Norwegian Folk Music Practices. Music Educ. Res. 2023, 25, 521–531.
  14. Rina, B. Exploring the Use of Digitally Archived Folk Music to Teach Southern United States History. Soc. Stud. 2023, 114, 282–296.
  15. Yao, W.; Wu, X.L. Exploration and Development of Digital Dissemination of Ethnic Music in Social Music Culture. Home Drama 2023, 5, 83–86.
  16. Yu, Z.; Zhang, Y. Research on an Online Teaching System for Ethnic Music Courses Incorporating Fuzzy Control and CRP Algorithms. Int. J. Comput. Syst. Eng. 2024, 8, 10–19.
  17. da Cunha, M.R.L. The Contemporary Revival of Nahḍa Music in Lebanon: The Role of Nostalgia in the Creation of a Contemporary Transnational Music Tradition. Acta Musicol. 2022, 94, 87–108.
  18. Mateos-Moreno, D.; Mateos-Carrillo, F.M.A. When Local Folk Music Seems Alien: Exploring the Case of Flamenco in Its Birthplace within an Educational Context. J. Pop. Music Educ. 2025, 9, 193–208.
  19. Khuntajan, J. A Study of Isan Folk Music Creation Using a Sampler for Music Education. J. Educ. Learn. 2024, 13, 85–93.
  20. Homhuan, W.; Sensai, P. The Significance of Percussion Instruments in Isan Thai Folk Music within the Context of Music Education and Learning. J. Educ. Learn. 2024, 13, 180–188.
  21. Yamin, T. Listening through Partitions: Ethnomusicology’s Immunological Paradigm. Sound Stud. 2024, 10, 138–144.
  22. Asadi, H.; Seraji, S. Persian Street Rap: A Study of the Phenomenon of Persian Rap within the Framework of Urban Folk Music Genre in Relation to Popular Music. Soc. Identities 2025, 31, 317–340.
  23. Kierzkowski, M. AI-Driven Radio and Cultural Production: An Ethnomusicological Inquiry into the Off Radio Kraków Experiment with Artificial Intelligence. Ethnomusicol. Forum 2025, 34, 270–276.
  24. Lei, X. Analysing the Effectiveness of Online Digital Audio Software and Offline Audio Studios in Fostering Chinese Folk Music Composition Skills in Music Education. J. Comput. Assist. Learn. 2024, 40, 2339–2350.
  25. Hu, M.; Wang, J. Folk Music: The Bedrock of Chinese Cultural Traditions. Cult. Educ. 2024, 36, 543–568. (in Korean)
  26. Coggins, O. Ancestral North: Spirituality and Cultural Imagination in Nordic Ritual Folk Music, Ross Hagen and Matthias Nordvig (2022). Met. Music Stud. 2025, 11, 287–290.
  27. Allotey-Pappoe, G. From Research to Algorithm: The Role of Ethnomusicologists in Addressing Cultural Bias and Misrepresentation in Music Systems. Ethnomusicol. Forum 2025, 34, 215–218.
  28. Gakenye, M. The State of African Traditional Music: From the Local to the Global and into the Virtual. J. Musical Arts Afr. 2024, 21, 167–174.
  29. Kang, Y. Development and Protection of Instrumental Folk Music in the Ningxia Reach of the Yellow River Basin. Highl. Art Des. 2024, 6, 5–8.
  30. Jones, B. The sounds of decolonization: Folk music and Arab nationalism in North Africa. J. North Afr. Stud. 2025, 30, 390–408.
  31. Navarro-Cáceres, J.J.; Jiménez-Bravo, D.M.; Navarro-Cáceres, M. Evaluating Preprocessing Techniques for Unsupervised Mode Detection in Irish Traditional Music. Appl. Sci. 2025, 15, 3162.
  32. Gibson, S.-J. Considering Approaches towards Sustainability through Reflexive Ethnographic Research into Two International Music Gatherings. Int. J. Community Music 2024, 17, 265–280.
  33. Jaunslaviete, B. Views of the Baltic German Press on the Traditions of Other Nationalities in Riga’s Music Life in the 1870s–1880s: The Influence of the Political Context. Musicol. Today 2024, 21, 68–76.
  34. Zeng, X. A Study on Yunnan Folk Music Composers: Taking Xiaogeng Liu, Yong Chen, and Li Wan as Examples. Educ. Innov. Res. 2024, 2, 1–8.
  35. Budzinski, O.; Pannicke, J. Does Popularity Matter in a TV Song Competition? Evidence from a National Music Contest. Creat. Ind. J. 2024, 17, 504–524.
  36. Lu, R.; Cortese, M. Latin Chant or Folk Music at Mass? A Debate on What Makes Liturgy ‘Reverent’. America 2024, 231, 1–9.
  37. Apps, K.; Sunderland, N.; Rakena, O.T. First Nations Music and Social Emotional Wellbeing and Health among LGBTIQA+SB First Nations Peoples: A Review of the Literature. Cult. Health Sex. 2024, 27, 570–590.
  38. Geng, S. Research on the Integration Path of National Music in Primary and Secondary School Art Courses. Contemp. Educ. Front. 2025, 3, 13–19.
  39. Zhang, X.; Yu, Y.; Zhang, Y. Artistic Expressions and Aesthetic Characteristics of Combining Dance and Folk Music. Appl. Math. Nonlinear Sci. 2025, 10, 20251027.
  40. Ngobili, C. The ‘Accidental Ethnomusicologist’ and His Lifelong Fight for Studies in African Popular Music: A Conversation with John Collins at 80. J. Musical Arts Afr. 2024, 21, 121–141.
  41. Guan, X.; Dong, Z.; Liu, H.; et al. Improving Phrase Segmentation in Symbolic Folk Music: A Hybrid Model with Local Context and Global Structure Awareness. Entropy 2025, 27, 460–460.
  42. Hagen, R.; Nordvig, M. Ancestral North: Spirituality and Cultural Imagination in Nordic Ritual Folk Music; Bloomsbury Publishing: Lanham, MD, USA; 2024.