Research On China’s Intangible Cultural Heritage: Current Status, Hot Topics, Challenges and Future Prospects

Intangible cultural heritage is the core carrier of China’s outstanding traditional culture. Since the implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Intangible Cultural Heritage, research on intangible cultural heritage in China has shifted from the early stage of “salvage recording” to a new stage emphasizing both “systematic protection” and “living inheritance”, forming a diversified pattern led by the government, supported by academia and participated by the whole society. Current research hotspots focus on living inheritance, digital and intelligent empowerment, integrated development of culture and tourism, and international communication. However, the field still faces core challenges such as insufficient research depth, theories lagging behind practice, backward disciplinary construction, unbalanced research distribution and insufficient inheritance vitality. This paper systematically sorts out the current situation of China’s intangible cultural heritage research and its core progress in the past six years (2020–2025), and deeply analyzes the current research hotspots and prominent dilemmas. On this basis, combined with national strategies and contemporary needs, this paper puts forward future development paths from the dimensions of theoretical construction, technological application, disciplinary construction and international communication, aiming to provide theoretical reference and practical guidance for the systematic protection, living inheritance and the construction of an independent knowledge system of China’s intangible cultural heritage.