Digital Reconstructing Gandhara: The Discourse Power Game In Cross-Civilization Aesthetic Migration: A Comparative Study Of Chinese And Western Digital Gandhara Projects

Abstract

As global attention increasingly focuses on Gandhara, the digital regeneration of Gandharan Buddhist art is becoming a new frontier for technological practice and ideological competition in the field of global cultural heritage. This study reveals that technological interventions (e.g., 3D high-precision scanning, metadata annotation rights, VR narrative scripts) fundamentally reconstruct cultural sovereignty boundaries. The lack of algorithmic ethics exacerbates risks of digital colonialism, exemplified by the British Museum’s "Cloud Gandhara" project, which strips local religious and social contexts while amplifying its "Hellenistic heritage" attributes. In contrast, China’s "Digital Dunhuang" project emphasizes tracing the evolutionary trajectory of Gandharan Buddhist artistic elements within Sino-local artistic exchanges. This paper comparatively analyzes the discursive strategies of Western "universal heritage" narratives versus China’s "civilizational tracing" narratives in the digital reconstruction of Gandhara. It aims to provide new theoretical pathways for Gandharan digital heritage conservation under the Belt and Road framework.