Developing an Evaluation Framework for Chinese ICH Short Videos in International Communication: A Multi-Evidence Design

Short-video platforms have become important venues for the international communication of Chinese intangible cultural heritage (ICH), yet existing assessment approaches remain fragmented across content quality, cultural representation, platform performance, and audience response. This study developed a literature-informed framework for evaluating the cross-cultural communication of Chinese ICH short videos. A focused corpus of 14 studies was selected because each study offered an explicit and reusable set of dimensions, indicators, or measurement procedures and provided enough methodological detail for comparison. Qualitative coding reduced 125 candidate indicators to a 72-indicator preliminary framework organized into 10 dimensions. The framework distinguishes public platform metrics, anchored content-coding ratings, audience survey measures, and contextual evidence. It prioritizes observable or clearly qualified measures over indicators that require inaccessible platform analytics. The study provides an operational basis for subsequent expert validation and cross-platform testing while maintaining a distinction between communication inputs, audience responses, and longer-term heritage outcomes.