• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.66 no.3
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• pp.75-92
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• 2016

The purpose of this study was to prove how sociocultural perspective of obesity, differences in consumers' perception of body and attitudes of accepting obesity affected individuals' clothing behaviors through cross-cultural studies. The data collected were composed of 612 Korean and US consumers in the 20's and 30's that had experiences in purchasing plus-size products. The results were as follows. First, BMI index was lower in Korean consumers than the US consumers, but Korean consumers received more stress from being overweight compared to the US consumers, and had a more negative attitude about their body. Second, although Korean consumers had lower BMI index and degrees of obesity than US consumers, they were severely stressed by obesity and were found to have a higher level of dissatisfaction with their bodies. Third, Korean consumers responded more sensitively to obesity and had a tendency to display a more negative attitude regarding obesity, and a more passive dependence on clothing. Forth, differences in the body shape were reflected even in wearing evaluation, and US consumers showed a more positive attitude toward evaluations of size suitability and fitness. Fifth, the plus-size market for Korean consumers was still not active, and most products purchased were generic brands obtained from online shopping malls through the Internet. However, in the case of the US, in which the ratio of obese people is high and the plus-size market is growing, consumers were purchasing plus-size brands through various distribution online and offline channels. Sixth, Korean consumers were less satisfied than US consumers with shops, sizes and fitness; however, they were more satisfied with design factors. Finally, it is expected that this study can offer practical implications for marketers and product developers running plus-size market for young obese consumers in their 20 and 30s.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.337-346
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to examine self esteem, interpersonal relations, and intercultural communicative competence on the cultural competence in nursing students. The design of this research was descriptive cross-sectional study. Regression analysis was the statistical method used for data analysis. There were significant positive correlations for self esteem, interpersonal relations, intercultural communicative competence and cultural competence in nursing students. Regression analysis showed that 18.2% of the variance for Cultural Competence was significantly accounted for Self Esteem, Interpersonal Relations and Intercultural Communicative Competence. The study's finding suggest the need for a cultural competency education programs designed to the appropriate grade level of nursing students. The finding's also suggest that education programs are necessary so that a nursing students can enhance there self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and intercultural communicative competence.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.700-711
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• 2011

The purposes of the study were to identify the online service attributes that contribute to online consumer experiences of satisfaction, service failure, and service recovery and to examine whether differences exist in these attributes between U.S. and Korea. E-A-S-QUAL provided a useful framework for the study. Focus group interviews and web surveys were conducted by utilizing college students in both countries. No significant cultural differences were found in online service dimensions of service satisfaction. Personalization was the most frequently mentioned online service dimension of service satisfaction both in the U.S. and Korea. The findings showed significant cultural differences in terms of online service dimensions responsible for service failure and recovery. For Korean consumers, merchandising was one of the key online service dimensions of service failure, while efficiency was the important service dimension resulting in service failure for the U.S. consumers. In addition, for U.S. consumers, efficiency and personalization were the two most frequently mentioned service dimension for service recovery, while Korean consumers put more importance on the contact and information dimensions for service recovery. This study provided a comprehensive list of online service attributes important to online apparel retailing.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.53-64
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• 2013

Culture has played a pivotal role in fashion from time immemorial. The objective of this research is to explore the power of cultural affiliation in fashion. The selected study setting is the Kandyan Kingdom of Sri Lanka. The Kandyan Kingdom of Sri Lanka lasted almost 3 1/2 centuries from 1474-1815. The whole period faced different foreign cultural forces. As a result of such diverse cultural influences the Kandyan dress showed a hybrid formation of Western and South Indian and Sinhalese traditional sartorial features. Sewing techniques and unsewn dress arrangement methods were mixed together. The dress became an amazing blend of Eastern and Western dress items. They combined different aspects of foreign dress together to yield a unique result. The analysis comprises observational study of actual descriptions made by observer- participants, historical records, murals of the period review of ancient literature and research papers relevant to the subject. Reliability of the data was ensured. The pictorial data were cross checked from different literary sources. Many original sources were used. Results: Culture and fashion have strong interconnection. When features of culture change, trends of fashion are gradually correspondingly changed.

• Women's Health Nursing
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 2019

Purpose: To identify needs for pregnancy and postpartum adaptation of Chinese immigrant women and Vietnamese immigrant women in South Korea. Methods: A descriptive research design was employed. Data were collected from 244 Chinese immigrant women and Vietnamese immigrant women from 3 provinces, 20 health care centers, and multi-cultural family support centers. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. Results: An average score for needs perceived by Chinese immigrant women was significantly higher than that perceived by Vietnamese immigrant women. There were significantly differences in physical and emotional adaptation after childbirth, nutrition during pregnancy, cross cultural understanding and personal respect, and adaptation daily activity during pregnancy between the 2 groups. The highest score of needs in Chinese immigrant women was for nutrition during pregnancy and that in Vietnamese immigrant women was for baby rearing and family support. Conclusion: Based on needs of pregnancy and postpartum adaption, nursing intervention program in consideration of cultural characteristics of Chinese immigrant women and Vietnam immigrant women need to be developed for their pregnancy and postpartum health care.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.171-191
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• 2020

Purpose The study aims to compare the online review writing behavior of users in China and the United States through text mining on online reviews' text content. In particular, existing studies have verified that there are differences in online reviews between different cultures. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to compare the differences between reviews written by Chinese and American tourists by analyzing text contents of online reviews based on cultural theory. Design/methodology/approach This study collected and analyzed online review data for hotels, targeting Chinese and US tourists who visited Korea. Then, we analyzed review data through text mining like sentiment analysis and topic modeling analysis method based on previous research analysis. Findings The results showed that Chinese tourists gave higher ratings and relatively less negative ratings than American tourists. And American tourists have more negative sentiments and emotions in writing online reviews than Chinese tourists. Also, through the analysis results using topic modeling, it was confirmed that Chinese tourists mentioned more topics about the hotel location, room, and price, while American tourists mentioned more topics about hotel service. American tourists also mention more topics about hotels than Chinese tourists, indicating that American tourists tend to provide more information through online reviews.

• Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal
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• no.5
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• pp.53-58
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• 1995

The purpose of this study is to explore how people's evaluation and preference on color palettes differ based on their cultural background. This study used the same color palettes developed by Youngsoon Park and Denise Guerin(1992). Fourteen representative adjectives are used to analyze the meaning evaluation and preference on the six color palletes. 425 undergraduate students are se-lected from Korea, Japan, U.S. and England and ques-tionnaire was used as survey instrument. The results show that there are significant differences among the four countries in the meaning evaluation and preferences on the color palettes and the characteristics of color palettes influence the differences among the countries. The differences among the countries decrease in case of color palettes composed of warm color with low or medium value difference and chroma difference, while the differences increase in case of color palette characterized by strong color contrast with high or medi-um value difference and chroma difference. The result of color meaning evaluation can be catego-rized into Western and Eastern culture. Korea and U.S., and Japan and U.S. showed significant differences in the most words and Korea and Japan showed similarities in the most words. Therefore it can be concluded that cul-tural backgrounds related to race, region and history in-fluence the color meaning evaluation and preference. Fur-ther study should explore the relationship between color and culture using more various color instruments such as color palettes in order to categorize the various aspects of culture.

• Archives of design research
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• v.20 no.2 s.70
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• pp.17-28
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• 2007

Despite a current fascination with East Asian iconography such as Zen Style among contemporary designers, there is a lack of genuine cross-cultural discourse that could enable us to share essential design experiences. To bring the discussion a deeper level, traditional Japanese tea-house in its design philosophy of body-mind interplay is explored. Tea-house is a superb manifestation to reveal a holistic understanding of the world. Nondualistic realization is generally associated with the dominant tendency of traditional East Asian philosophy, namely the view that the self and environment, and that the mind and the body exist in unity. The essence of tea-house is not in its poetic style or meticulous details, but in its unmistakably monistic approach of creating inseparable form, function and meaning. Tea-house bestows dignity upon restraint, imperfection, discomfort, poverty, and even humility. This concept offers a tremendous insight since it implies that the rational and effective design solution to the greatest degree is not sufficient. Perhaps the most challenging question about tea-house is: How does our experience with human-made 'design' in the broadest sense help both our body and mind attain a full harmony of being? It is the heading which this research inquires.

• Review of Culture and Economy
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.89-109
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• 2018

This paper aims to offer a conceptual framework in the context of culture-driven city branding through strategic design from a cross-disciplinary approach. The key findings identified the followings: Firstly, the phenomenon of culture-driven city brand creation and the use of design value of primary attractions. Secondly, the impact of the design contents of new media in supporting city brand creation. Lastly, the importance of image/text relationships through applying coding theory to enhance city brand communications.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.50 no.4
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• pp.5-20
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• 2000

Through his geometric design, the Cyprus born fashion designer Hussein Chalayan raises intriguing questions about the very fact of wearing clothes. By purposefully displacing the function of each part of the clothing, such as neck line, hem line, seam, sleeve, etc., Chalayan transforms the meaning of the body that wears clothes. of the human subject as a sovereign possessor of the clothing and the visibility related to fashion. This transformation is achieved by distorting the spaces of his clothing in an unorthodox way. This thesis argues that the significance of such a practice can not be properly understood without relation to the current debate on deconstructionism under way in humanities. Instead of immediately negating the modern frame of Ideas and practices, deconstructionism asks what the assumptions for the modern regime of truth is. In this process, things that lead human beings to sovereign master of knowledge and truth such as reason, subject, body and vision are questioned. In the same context, Chalayan's design not only forces us to rethink the very function of dividing inside and outside by the clothing but also the meaning of boundary operating in numerous sites of modern life. As the human subject is not something pre-given but constructed according to the cultural representation, to which the clothing belongs, fashion can be evaluated to be an active ingredient of constructing the subject. Therefore, Hussein Chalayan's design is at the cross road between the modern and the postmodern regime of fashion.