Abstract <p>Knowledge graphs are becoming increasingly popular for organizing and managing knowledge across various industries and academic fields. Knowledge graphs assist users to better understand domain knowledge by reorganizing and aggregating information. In the application scenario, recent research has mainly focused on constructing knowledge graphs to create narrative visualizations from the perspective of humanities expert, but the mapping relationship between knowledge graphs and narrative scripts which visualization designers specialize in remains largely unexplored. This paper aims to explore the use of cultural heritage knowledge graphs for producing narrative scripts that creatively preserve and communicate cultural heritage. To achieve this, the researchers constructed an ethnic costumes knowledge graph based on data collected from the Chinese National Museums of Ethnology and a literature survey. We conducted an experiment to identify typical patterns in data exploration and narrative scripts that linked to the designers’ authorial intent and process. Based on our analysis, we present design recommendations for narrative visualization with knowledge graphs that could provide practical guidance in designing cultural heritage information visualization.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>