Culturally oriented product design relies on inspiration from the local cultural heritage in the creation of unique products with specific local features. An authentic experience of cultural design inspiration can facilitate novel design outcomes. However, only a few studies have investigated the acquisition of cultural inspiration from a participatory perspective in the field. To narrow this gap, a design workshop was organized with local government in China. Design students were asked to combine local cultural characteristics in everyday products and to generate new concepts that reflect cultural diversity and support local tourism development. We collected students' visual representations, text notes and recorded verbal explanations of the concepts behind the created product designs. The entire data was analysed following the method of holistic coding to identify the types of cultural inspiration and cultural levels. Data-driven analysis included two rounds of categorising. Using the product metaphorical mapping tool, we specified three cultural levels and the cultural elements related to them. The analytical method helped reveal students' design intentions in applying both tangible and intangible cultural elements The results demonstrated that design educators can support young designers to apply the participatory approach in bringing ethical cultural transformations regarding visual, behavioural and philosophical design features.