FROM CULTURAL HERITAGE TO VISUAL COHERENCE: A CULTURAL TRANSLATION APPROACH TO REVITALIZING THE JINTAIHENG TIME-HONORED PASTRY BRAND

Abstract

Jintaiheng is a time-honored pastry brand in Anyang, China, with substantial historical, craft, regional, and consumption-related cultural resources. Yet its packaging and retail touchpoints communicate these resources through fragmented visual elements and inconsistent application rules. This contrast indicates that the central problem is not an absence of cultural content. It is the lack of a mechanism that translates cultural evidence into a stable, coherent, and extendable visual language. A qualitative case study and design research approach combined literature review, field observation, visual-material analysis, semi-structured interviews with three key informants, and instrument review by five experts. The findings first identified cultural resources in historical memory, craftsmanship, regional symbolism, and consumption practices. The visual diagnosis further indicated that inconsistent logo use, color proportions, typography, layout, information hierarchy, and symbolic application were not operating within a coordinated visual identity system. On this basis, the study proposes a rule-based translation pathway that proceeds from cultural evidence through selection, symbolic simplification, visual-role allocation, system-rule development, and adaptation across consumption scenarios. This pathway frames sustainable visual revitalization as cultural translation rather than surface packaging renewal. The study remains a qualitative case and strategy-proposal-stage investigation; it does not claim a completed visual identity system or verified consumer effects.

Keywords: Jintaiheng, Time-Honored Brand, Cultural Heritage, Cultural Translation, Visual Coherence, Visual Identity System