With the in-depth advancement of globalization, the international communication of local culture urgently needs to break through the limitations of single language or text and shift towards systematic narrative construction centered on multimodal collaboration. As an important birthplace of China's sea salt culture, Yancheng boasts more than 2,000 sea salt cultural heritage sites (items), covering rich resources such as Tang and Song Dynasty salt warehouse ruins, Ming and Qing Dynasty salt certificate documents, and modern salt reclamation archives. How to transform this profound cultural accumulation into communication content with international commensurability is a key issue in the current "Culture Going Global" strategy. The theory of multimodal discourse analysis provides a powerful methodological support for this—it emphasizes the collaborative coding and meaning co-construction of symbolic resources such as language, images, sounds, and actions, which can effectively reduce the "decoding barrier" in cross-cultural contexts and enhance the acceptance and resonance of cultural communication.
Symbol Transformation: From Heritage Resources to Multimodal Texts
The essence of cultural communication is the cross-context migration of meaning. The traditional communication method mainly based on text or static exhibition is prone to cause "cultural discount". Multimodal theory advocates the recoding of cultural symbols through "modal complementarity".
Yancheng's practice has shown innovative exploration in symbol transformation. The documentary Legend of Sea Salt integrates historical images, expert explanations and the salt transportation scene of Chuanyang River, forming a composite narrative of "visual + auditory + language", which effectively expanded the audience's cognitive boundary after being broadcast on CCTV. The China Sea Salt Museum launched the "Exhibition of the Life Story of Lu Xiufu, a Loyal Martyr Through the Ages", and relying on the "Flowers in the Expo—Museum in the Flower Field" project, innovatively combines the collected cultural relic IP with natural landscapes, using the visual modal combination of "salt-based treasures + 10,000-mu flower field". This transformation not only retains core symbols such as "salt certificates" and "ancient salt fields", but also reduces the decoding threshold through internationally universal visual aesthetic language.
Modal Collaboration: Constructing a Four-in-One Communication Framework
The key to the effectiveness of multimodal communication lies in the functional complementarity and synergistic effect of different symbol systems. Yancheng's practice has initially formed a collaborative framework of visual foundation, auditory empathy, interactive deepening and digital extension, which is in line with Kress and van Leeuwen's visual grammar and O'Halloran's multimodal interaction theory.
Visual modality is the primary carrier of cross-cultural communication. The visual communication system constructed by the Municipal Museum has achieved remarkable results: the 3D digital guide "Yan Xiaobo", based on the prototype of a Song Dynasty salt official, enhances emotional connection through anthropomorphic design; the "Hanfu Culture Month" activity has attracted people from many countries to participate.
Auditory modality evokes emotional resonance through rhythm and soundscape. The Huai Opera Fan Gong Dyke, a project of the National Art Fund, conveys the spirit of salt people through local opera, and its audio is spread through overseas Chinese communities; the "sound specimens" such as salt workers' chants and market cries collected in the documentary constitute a unique "soundscape narrative", which directly reaches the emotional level bypassing language translation.
Interactive modality promotes the audience to transform from "receivers" to "co-creators". The "Salt Certificate Mystery" immersive exploration activity launched by the Municipal Museum integrates NPC interaction, clue decryption and role-playing, allowing participants to understand the history of salt administration in immersion; during the "double festival" of National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival, the museum specially planned the "Mid-Autumn Moon Appreciation·Neighbors Across the World" international students' handmade DIY activity, inviting international students to wear Hanfu to participate in moon cake making, calligraphy experience, etc., building a bridge for cross-cultural communication.
Digital modality expands the temporal and spatial boundaries of cultural communication. The "Shouchun Chu Song" XR immersive exploration experience exhibition with the theme of Jianghuai Chu culture launched by the Municipal Museum restores the Tang Dynasty salt field scene through virtual reality technology, allowing the audience to "travel through" to feel the ancient Chu civilization.
Path Optimization: Constructing a Systematic International Communication System
Facing the future, Yancheng should be guided by theory to construct a "content-platform-mechanism" trinity international communication system.
In terms of content construction, follow the principle of "minimum decoding cost" and strengthen the cross-cultural adaptability of symbols. Relying on the multilingual advantages of the Yancheng Local Culture International Communication Research Center, carry out multilingual translation of core content such as Legend of Sea Salt, and provide supporting "cultural annotation manuals" to popularly explain unique concepts such as "salt certificates" and "Fan Gong Dyke". At the same time, extract concrete symbols such as "salt crystal" and "Chuanyang River", develop a series of short videos, and refer to the "1-minute culture" communication model to reduce the cognitive load of overseas audiences.
In terms of platform construction, realize the transformation from "one-way communication" to "two-way dialogue". Offline, relying on the "Wetland Turns Red" autumn cultural and tourism season, an international salt culture forum can be added, inviting salt culture scholars from Germany, Japan and other countries to participate in discussions; at the same time, hold salt culture workshops, setting up interactive projects such as ancient method of sun-drying salt and salt carving making. Online, the "Global Salt Story" topic challenge can be launched to encourage overseas users to share local salt culture and form a content co-creation ecology.
In terms of mechanism innovation, strengthen the dual-wheel drive of technology and academics. In the short term, the VR immersive experience project can be optimized, adding multilingual explanations and cultural interactive levels; in the medium term, the "Yancheng Sea Salt Culture Metaverse" can be constructed, integrating resources such as ancient salt field ruins and intangible cultural heritage skills; in the long term, relying on the National Salt Culture Venue Alliance, promote the multimodal integration of salt culture resources in multiple cities. At the same time, strengthen the research on communication effect evaluation, and establish a multimodal communication effectiveness index system to provide theoretical support for practice.
(Wu Bin is a researcher at the Yancheng Local Culture International Communication Research Center; Chen Wenyan is a student at the School of Foreign Languages, Yancheng Institute of Technology. This article was published in Yanfu People's Daily on October 27, 2025.)
