A Study on the Comparison of Recognition of Body Types in Korean and Chinese College Female Students

Ever since China adopted a free market economy, it has been basking in unprecedented economic growth. It has now emerged as one of the most promising markets in the world for the near future. The purpose of this study was to investigate of Chinese and Korea college female students's cognitive body type and to suggest basic informations for high quality clothing merchandising for china export. The subjects in this study were 430 college female students, aged from 18 to 24 living in Beijing(215) and Seoul(215). The survey were taken from June to July, 1999. SAS(Statistical Analysis System) is used for frequency, percentage, average, standard deviation, χ²-test. The results of this study are as follows. The 90% of Chinese collge female students has under 4000 yuan for monthly income, and they consume less than 1000 yuan for clothing purchasing for one year. About 42% chinese students are interested in controlling of physical body shape. The Korean college female students has from 1,000,000 won to 10,000,000 won for monthly income, and the 84% of them consume less than 1,000,000 for clothing purchasing for one year. It represents of economical difference between China and Korea. Examination on the Korean and Chinese self-perception on obesity of the body as a whole showed that both groups perceived themselves as normal or slightly overweight. More Korean respondents regarded their weight as normal than the Chinese did. The Chinese female college students perceived themselves rather overweight, and held a lower satisfaction level about their physical construction. While the Korean female college students showed low satisfaction level about specific bodily parts, they held a normal level of satisfaction about their physical construction as a whole. It is noteworthy that more Chinese respondents generally held lower satisfaction impressions about their physical construction than their Korean counterparts. It is needed to different merchandising project for export clothing in China.