Henan Bian embroidery, a national-level intangible cultural heritage rooted in Northern Song court embroidery, is celebrated for its continuous grayscale transition, low-saturation tonal values, and realistic stitching, yet it increasingly struggles with mismatches between traditional craftsmanship and contemporary tastes, weak emotional resonance among younger consumers, and the declining transmission of core techniques. Guided by cultural gene theory, this study decodes the artistic “genes” of Bian embroidery and evaluates how gene fidelity and design innovation shape public acceptance of contemporary expressions. Using a mixed-method design, we collected 168 classical embroidery works and 96 contemporary product samples through literature review and fieldwork, then extracted gene features with an information-entropy model to construct a structured gene map. A stratified questionnaire survey yielded 486 valid responses, and SPSS 26.0 was used for factor analysis and multiple regression to test the driving factors. The results identify a twolevel gene system (dominant vs. recessive), organized into four categories and sixteen elements. Regression shows that color gene fidelity (β=0.328), design innovation (β=0.312), morphological gene fidelity (β=0.256), and technique gene fidelity (β=0.215) each exert significant positive effects on acceptance, with strong explanatory power (R²=0.624). Agegroup comparisons further reveal divergent preference structures: Generation Z demonstrates the strongest purchase intention, whereas traditional collectors exhibit the highest cultural identity. Overall, designs that simultaneously maintain high gene fidelity and achieve high innovation receive the greatest approval, supporting a “heritage-preserving yet future-oriented” transformation pathway.

Henan Bian embroidery, artistic genes, contemporary expression, cultural symbols, design reconstruction