Preserving tradition requires a new design Patterns used in ethnic clothing, products or other places are important carriers of the cultural heritage of the many ethnic groups in China. They embody rich historical memory, cultural symbolism and artistic value, vividly reflecting the diversity of Chinese civilization. However, many of these valuable pattern resources currently exist only in artifacts, images or oral traditions scattered among communities, museums and private collections. There is no systematic and digitalized integration platform and some patterns are even on the verge of disappearing due to disruptions in cultural transmission. Existing databases are mostly regional and small-scale projects without unified standards or cross-regional coordination, which greatly limits research, preservation and innovative application of these pattern resources. The unique advantages of university libraries in ethnic regions should be leveraged to establish a national database of distinctive ethnic patterns. It would support the preservation and development of traditional Chinese culture and provide foundational resources for China's cultural digitalization strategy, while also strengthening the sense of a shared Chinese national identity. First, the transformation of research outcomes remains limited. In recent years, many studies addressed ethnic patterns, some of which focused on digital technologies and database construction. Yet a relatively small number of databases have actually been completed and put into use, and most of them are small-scale platforms built by individual research groups or enterprises, with limited scope and inconsistent standards. Second, these databases are highly fragmented. Current ethnic pattern databases include industrial databases developed by enterprises, thematic databases built by universities and research teams and intangible cultural heritage databases initiated by local governments. They are largely isolated from one another without any cohesion or sharing mechanism. Third, technological applications lack sufficient cultural depth. Technologies such as AI, big data and virtual reality are increasingly used in pattern recognition,