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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
HUANG Yun
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2026.10.010
Yunnan Museum of Aromatics & Incense Culture, Kunming, China
Drawing on Yunnan’s multi-ethnic endowment of aromatic medicinal plants, and responding to practical bottlenecks in the province’s residential health-and-wellness tourism—insufficient supporting facilities, scarce distinctive wellness products, and absent digital service tools—this study explores the construction of a localized Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) aromatherapy system that is distinct from Western aromatherapy and from the aromatic practices of other regions of China, so as to extend aromatherapy into residential scenarios and provide differentiated TCM wellness services for “Residential Yunnan”. Using ethnobotanical field investigation, literature review, and comparative analysis, the study maps indigenous aromatic medicinal resources (such as Yunnan agarwood and lemongrass) and the traditional aromatic therapies of the Dai, Yi, and Hani peoples; analyzes current shortcomings in the hardware, software services, and digital tools of Yunnan’s residential tourism; and builds a five-dimensional framework comprising theoretical core, raw-material system, technical paradigm, safety norms, and digital support. Yunnan possesses exceptional ethnic aromatic medicinal resources and living folk aromatic practices, yet its residential tourism largely remains at the level of climate-based sightseeing, with homogenized TCM wellness products and a lack of aromatherapy services and supporting software adapted to residential populations. The proposed system adheres to a core of “TCM holism + Yunnan multi-ethnic aromatic medicines”: It prioritizes indigenous geo-authentic aromatic herbs, integrates ethnic incense fumigation, aromatic baths, and “sleeping-medicine” external therapy, and combines Chinese meridian techniques with modern essential-oil technology. It can be deployed across five scenarios—standardized services in residential wellness institutions, immersive guesthouse experiences, inclusive community wellness stations, cultural-tourism study travel, and digitally enabled self-care at home—while requiring digital supporting tools to fill the software gap. Constraints include weak basic research on ethnic aromatic medicines, missing service standards, a shortage of interdisciplinary talent, and insufficient hardware-software coordination. Constructing a Yunnan-unique TCM aromatherapy system can leverage local biodiversity and ethnic-medicine advantages, enrich wellness-tourism supply, and fill the software gap; through raw-material quality control, scenario standards, digital-tool development, and talent cultivation, the modern transformation of traditional ethnic aromatic wisdom can be achieved to support the high-quality development of “Residential Yunnan”.
TCM aromatherapy, ethnic aromatic medicines, residential health-and-wellness tourism, Yunnan characteristics, wellness scenarios, digital support
Journal of Literature and Art Studies, October 2026, Vol. 16, No. 10, 861-869
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