Cultural Perception of the Historical and Cultural Blocks of Beijing Based on Weibo Photos

Historic blocks are steeped in the history and culture of a city, reflecting the characteristics of the landscape during historical periods; they are of great significance to the preservation of the historical memory of the city. However, existing research generally lacks integration with big data, and research perspectives are mostly from the conservation planning of historic blocks, the evaluation mechanisms of blocks, and the development of block tourism resources; thus, the public perception is lacking. This study involved 28 historical and cultural blocks in Beijing, the capital of China, and constructed a system of cultural perception symbols based on the cultural connotations of the capital. On this basis, photo recognition was conducted on Weibo photo data collected by relying on the photo segmentation method, and the intrinsic factors affecting the cultural perception of the historical and cultural blocks were explored from the perspective of public perception (local residents and tourists). The results show that: (1) the capital culture of Beijing can be roughly divided into five categories: ancient capital culture, red culture, Beijing-style culture, innovation culture, and other types of culture, based on the photo recognition method; (2) from the perspective of public perception, the degree of perception of Beijing culture and innovation culture is generally higher, while the degree of perception of red culture and ancient capital culture is lower; (3) the 28 historic and cultural blocks of Beijing’s old city are mainly dominated by one or more cultures, and there are no historic and cultural blocks with a balance of five cultures, reflecting the relative lack of cultural diversity within the blocks; (4) the local cultural identity of Beijing is prominent and dominant in the public mind. However, local residents have a relatively high perception of innovative culture, whereas tourists have a higher perception of ancient capital culture and red culture. In this study, photo recognition technology was introduced to study the cultural perception of historical and cultural blocks to provide new ideas and methods for the study of historical and cultural blocks.