Translation of Intangible Cultural Heritage Sugar Painting Elements in Modern Jewelry Design

This paper addresses the challenges faced by the intangible cultural heritage of sugar painting in contemporary times, particularly concerning material preservation and shifts in its living context, which focuses on the inherent limitations such as the ephemeral nature of the medium, preservation difficulties, and the conflict between its edible function and modern health perspectives. This study proposed and validated a transformation pathway that uses jewelry design as a new carrier. Through genealogical comparison, the study first established the translatable value of sugar painting in terms of material properties, symbolic systems, and formal language. Based on this, a "Sugar Painting-Jewelry" translation design roadmap was constructed—a visual framework that clearly delineates the multidimensional and modular translation logic from element deconstruction to design generation. The study detailed how modern materials and techniques enable the creative translation of sugar painting's core elements at the levels of visual texture, cultural narrative, and spatial ambience. The conceptual design of the Tang Shou You Yu (longevity with abundance, homophonic with the Chinese phrase for "having surplus") brooch demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of this methodological framework. Ultimately, the study aimed to provide a clear, systematic, and scalable theoretical framework and exploratory pathway for the transformation of sugar painting and similar intangible cultural heritages into modern jewelry design.