A Harmonious Cross-Culture in Costume Design: Case Study on Chinese LONG and Thai NAGA

Abstract

Cross-cultural communication has become frequent phenomenon very and is closely related to people's lives. This topic is now a widely discussed in academic research field. However, there is still some research scope about the study of interdisciplinary research between costume design and cross-cultural communication. The research chose China LONG (“Dragon” in Chinese) and Thailand NAGA as case study to show that “costume design” as medium to do cross-cultural communication. LONG is the symbol that represent Chinese culture, there is also a similar totem in Thailand, which is NAGA, as totems worship that they represent the own cultural ideological connotation. The research objectives in this study are: 1. To make a generalized theory study between costume design and cross-cultural communication. 2.To understand the tangible characters and intangible contents of the LONG and NAGA. 3. To analyze the audiences' cognition of the LONG and NAGA. 4.To propose appropriate design strategy for the LONG and NAGA. 5.To introduce a new perspective of cross-culture costume design of the LONG and NAGA. The research methods in this research can be regarded as the process of "decoding and encoding". After selected cultural code between China and Thailand, which is LONG and NAGA. Then extracted the cultural contents of LONG and NAGA by 3 steps decoding. The first step is literature review. Second step are field trips and site visiting in China and Thailand. Third step of encoding are workshop and in-depth interview. This can also be seen as the process of data collection. For the data analysis, a parallel research methodology of comparative and qualitative research was used. Synthesized findings and generated design concept and design strategy. This process can be regarded as four times encoding process. From the graphic view of LONG and NAGA to the arts form application design, then is the design phase about the symbolize and myth. The last design phase about the common characters of LONG and NAGA, focus on the national philosophy about LONG and NAGA. The research results are: 1) A summary of the intangible and tangible characteristics of LONG and NAGA. 2) The formulation of an original research methodology, which can be used as references for Costume designs based on cross-symbolism. 3) Created various design phases，Produced many prototypes, which can be the references of other designers or researchers. 5) Proposed the four layers of cross-symbolic contents. 6) A new perspective of cross LONG and NAGA of costume design be presented.

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