The preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage increasingly depends on the ability to integrate fragmented knowledge dispersed across isolated repositories. Early foundational work on open access repositories already identified critical factors for their success and sustainability (Shearer 2002), and scholars have argued that such repositories fundamentally enhance the scholarship and public value of digital libraries (Calhoun 2014). Erlinger (2022) emphasises that openness has become a core principle for making both access to and the production of knowledge more inclusive. This study examines how Open Access Repositories (OAR) can be systematically employed in digital humanities projects, using the Chinese Ancient Ceramics Knowledge Service Platform “YunCiXu” as a case study. Chinese ceramics, with their millennia‑long evolution from Neolithic utilitarian wares to global commodities (Fang 2023), embody a rich cultural narrative that links materials, people, locations, historical events, and artistic expression. However, because information about them is scattered among specialised databases, printed sources, and institutional collections, obtaining a unified view is exceptionally difficult. The YunCiXu project, launched in 2022 by Shanghai University and Renmin University of China, addresses this challenge by aggregating, structuring, and dynamically exposing cultural data through open APIs.

The methodology consists of three phases. First, data are collected both manually by domain experts and automatically via API harvesting from four major open access repositories: the China Biographical Database (CBDB), the SouYun poetry database, the Artlib World Art Library, and the Shanghai Library’s Chinese Ancient Books Union Catalogue. Second, the harvested information is mapped onto a semantic schema driven by the entities Who, When, Where, What Event, and Which Object. The result is a dual knowledge graph: a Ceramic Pattern Atlas that captures typological and technological evolution of vessel forms, and a Decorative Motif Atlas that records iconographic motifs, their cultural meanings, and spatio‑temporal distribution. Third, API layer enables dynamic narrative generation: users exploring a ceramic object are seamlessly linked to related poems, biographical records, literary texts, and geographic data without knowing the underlying repository boundaries. The frontend, built with Bootstrap for responsiveness and PbootCMS for content management, relies on SQLite for lightweight data handling, making the platform both scalable and sustainable.

The public‑facing YunCiXu platform organises this interconnected knowledge into six thematic modules: “Tracing Shadows Among Ceramics” (classic artefacts, museum memories, and people’s stories), “Interest in Ceramics” (classical texts, poetry, and encyclopaedic knowledge), “The Space and Time of Ceramic Kilns” (kiln information and spatio‑temporal maps), “China’s Ceramic Colors” (seasonal colour themes and digital rebirth through NFTs and games), “Ceramic Route by the Sea” (maritime trade routes and global influence), and “Knowledge Graph” (access to the two atlases and personal private library archives). The system thus moves beyond a static digital archive, offering each user – researcher, cultural institution, or general public – an exploratory environment that can reveal hidden connections between, for instance, a Tang‑dynasty poem, a specific kiln site, and a decorative motif that travelled along the maritime silk road.

The project’s success rests on two pillars: interdisciplinary collaboration between art historians, librarians, and computer scientists, and the principled use of open data. Similar to the Shanghai Memory platform (Xia, Wang, and Liu 2021), YunCiXu demonstrates how a semantically organised knowledge base can reconstruct and communicate a city’s or a craft’s cultural history. Nonetheless, long‑term sustainability requires continuous attention to platform security, software updates, and a migration plan to avoid digital obsolescence. Moreover, the project could evolve into a living scholarly ecosystem by incorporating crowdsourcing functionalities: registered users might suggest new entity links, contribute transcriptions, or add information about ceramics held in collections worldwide, always under a robust moderation framework.

In conclusion, YunCiXu illustrates how open access repositories, when combined with semantic knowledge organisation and dynamic API delivery, can transform fragmented heritage data into a coherent, multi‑layered cultural narrative. The platform not only preserves digital heritage but actively re‑contextualises it, engaging diverse audiences and fostering a deeper appreciation of Chinese ceramic art. The model offers a transferable blueprint for future digital humanities initiatives that seek to make cultural memory both permanently accessible and perpetually alive.

Acknowledgements

Supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 22BTQ086).

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