Fashion Design in Cross-cultural Communication: Case Study on

Thailand Naga and China LONG

Yixin Zou

Silpakorn University,Talingchan, Bangkok, Thailand

Keywords: Thailand Naga, China LONG(Dragon), Fashion design, Cross-culture communication, Decoding and

Encoding.

Abstract: China LONG(Dragon in Chinese) and Thai Naga, they are similar in appearance, and they play a major

role in their respective cultures. They have been applied as a cultural symbol in various cultural and

artistic fields of the two countries. According to humanities one of the purposes of wearing clothes is

the adornment, which is act as a symbol for people to express and disseminate a certain meaning and

culture and display to the public. So, in this paper, it makes a comparative study of the NAGA culture

in Thailand and the LONG worship in China, in order to explore the similarities and differences

between Naga and LONG in terms of tangible and intangible values, decode their symbols and

implications, and endow them with new meanings in the clothing design. The primary research

approaches adopted in this paper is questionnaires. It investigates the applications of LONG element in

Thai Naga element in audience’s opinion, and utilizes qualitative research for data analysis. Finally, it

is applied to the fashion design. This research is a good example that not only integrates traditional

culture between the two countries into modern costume design, but also places great emphasis on the

fusion of aesthetic and spiritual symbiosis in the modern clothing. In addition, it can effectively

combine different disciplines including cross-cultural communication, humanities and clothing design

for a profound research.

1 INTRODUCTION

In October 2013, China government has issued the

policy of “The Silk Road Economic Belt and the

21stCentury Maritime Silk Road” which also known

as the “One Belt and One Road Initiative (OBOR)”.

This policy is not only aims to fastened the

connectivity and cooperation between Eurasian

countries by constructing the infrastructures, but also

in the other areas, such as economics strengthen,

education exchanges and especially (Zhang,2017).

Thailand is one of the most important country in

this area, the present and future China-Thailand

communication in economy, culture, and so on will

be more frequent. And the two countries have a long

history of communication. From historical point of

view, China-Thailand communication has a long

history and can be traced back to the West Han

Dynasty at the earliest. In 1370 AD, Ayutthaya tribute

six elephants to the Ming Dynasty, and since then,

China-Thailand communication became very

frequency and their communication history was

opened. In the 1980s, many coastal people in China

entered Thailand, and hundreds of thousands of

Chinese people came to China for jobs every year

(Wu,2014). From the political angle, Chairman Xi

proposed the Belt & Road initiative in 2013. Under

the influence of this policy, China-Thailand cultural

exchange and economic contacts are happening every

single day. It is unpractical to analyze cross-culture

communication without consideration of political

factors. It is difficult for international communication

studies to go deeper without regard to cultural

background and differences. China and Thailand have

similar cultural backgrounds and are influenced by

historical and policy factors and so on. Researcher

born in China, now studying in Thailand, based on

personal practice and experience, it is appropriate that

this research position in China and Thailand.

This research will choose NAGA and LONG

(Dragon in Chinese) as a research example. LONG

and NAGA are both symbol that represent Thailand

and China cultures, they have differences and

similarities meaning in their country. This research

will combine with NAGA and LONG as a culture

code and put in fashion design, and make the meaning

456

Zou, Y.

Fashion Design in Cross-cultural Communication: Case Study on Thailand Naga and China LONG.

DOI: 10.5220/0009395704560468

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities (ICONARTIES 2019), pages 456-468

ISBN: 978-989-758-450-3

to be more understandable by both two countries.

This process can be seen as a good example about the

study of fashion design methodology in the context of

crosscultural communication.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The literature review is divided into two parts, one is

the research and study of LONG culture and NAGA

culture in China and Thailand. The second is the

interpretation of the cross-cultural communication

and fashion design market.

2.1 LONG Story in Chinese Culture

Origin of LONG culture: Different scholars hold

different opinions over the origin of LONG culture,

where the mostly approved origin theories are animal

theory and totem theory. Animal theory: Living

habits of animals can be divided into three types: pass

through the land, fly in the air and swim in the sea. In

the Stone Age, human beings not only feared about

special skills of these animals but also revered them

in their inner hearts. According to archaeological

findings, at least dozens of animals participate in the

combination of LONG body such as cow, goat, deer

as well as animals posing severe threat to life safety,

including crocodile, tiger, snake, eagle, etc.

Most of them have unique morphologies and

skills that people are surprised with and adore, so

their images are combined together to form a LONG.

However, some scholars deem that the prototype of

LONG is snake. Some scholars put forward that

LONG worship derives from other totem worships

such as Mingda Wang, Hesen Yang, Dayou Wang,

Guangyue He, and so on. As for the final description

of LONG body, what is mostly recognized is the

expression by the scholar in the later Han Dynasty

proposed that “it has nine shapes, head is like camel’s,

horn is like deer’s, eyes are like rabbit’s, ears are like

cow’s, head top is like snake’s, abdomen is like

clam’s, scale is like eagle’s, claw is like eagle’s and

palm is like tiger’s”(Zhang and Xie, 2015).

Therefore, it can be seen that LONG is not a creature

in real being but created by people after continuous

imagination in human brains through their

observation of daily life.

Figure 1: LONG image.

Totem theory: Totem theory was firstly proposed

by Mr Yiduo Wen, which still has a great bearing on

studies of LONG culture. Totem is transliteration of

Indian language, meaning “kinship” and “sign”. As

early as the ancient times, people held the world in

awe and veneration with totem worship. Each clan

had its own species they worshiped, like snake, horse

and cow, all of which were worship objects. These

animals were related to the clan origin or some of

their features satisfied ruling requirements of the clan,

people depicted these animals as symbols of their

clans, and afterwards, due to the ruler demand, the

ruler extracted partial features of animal worships

form different clans after the clans were unified so as

to form the LONG image (Liu and Zhao,2006)

2.2 About LONG Worship

LONG worship and Chinese politics. The most

highlighted feature of Chinese LONG is that LONG

is divine as it has supernatural abilities of reaching the

heaven and sea. Tao Te Ching by Laozi: “For I am

abstracted from the world，the world from nature，

nature from the way，and the way from what is

beneath abstraction”. Chinese have worshiped and

revered the nature and world since the ancient times,

and communicating with the heaven naturally

becomes the goal everybody wants to reach

(Zeng,2007). LONG becomes an object connecting

heaven and human beings. Ancient rulers boasted that

they were sons or incarnations of LONG by taking

advantage of this psychology. Therefore, LONG was

shaped into ruler of the sea in the Chinese LONG

culture. Ancient rulers reigned over the masses by

virtue of LONG worship. Hence, LONG is also the

symbol of ruler in the Chinese history.

LONG worship and Buddhism. Worship has

established a profound relation with Buddhism during

its development process. The LONG King and

Daughter of the LONG stories firstly appeared in

Buddhist texts translated into Chinese. Who found the

Fashion Design in Cross-cultural Communication: Case Study on Thailand Naga and China LONG

457

influence of Buddhism very early were Shiti Huo and

Jingnong Tai. In related artivled, they believed that

LONG king and Daughter of the LONG stories in

Chinese Literature were input from India. Long in

Buddhist texts translated into Chinese is actually

(dragon) translation of Sanskrit Naga which means

“snake”. “Longwang” (the LONG King) is translation

of Sanskrit Nagaraja, Nagaraj or Magaraijanr (Liu

and Yang,1996).

2.3 Symbol of the LONG

1. LONG is regarded as a rain god who can bring

water and rain to the people in the secular world.

2. As a heavenly beast, which can bring people to the

heaven, LONG can communicate with the heaven,

earth, and human beings. 3. Symbol of the emperor.

The emperor uses the superstitious “LONG God" to

execute autocratic ruling. 4. The LONG is the

incarnation of wisdom and is often used to describe

people who are highly respected and knowledgeable.

5. The LONG is a symbol of good fortune. The

LONG represents the prosperity and celebration. 6.

LONG worship and Buddhism.

Ancient China was under the influence of “unity

of heaven and man” in Tao Te Ching by Laozi (Zhang

and Xie,2015), which mainly expounds the desire for

balance between man and nature and the world peace.

It endows LONG with supernatural power and

expresses Chinese people’s pursuit of the thought of

balance.

2.4 The Story of Naga

From thousand of years, the Naga has played an

important role in the history of South East Asia, the

word “Naga” which frequently appeared in Indian

and South East Asian literatures is rooted from

Sanskrit and its has various confusing meaning such

as “Naked”, “Snake”, and “Barbarian”. Due to

archaeological evidence that has been found in

various places in South East Asia and especially in

Ban Chiang, Udon Thani, Thailand, which strongly

verified that people who used to live in the area so

called South East Asia in the present day were

worshipping “Snake” as a sacred animal

(Chang,2016). This is because in the past, people

were living among the nature, where they were

surrounded by various kinds of danger. Also, they

could not yet understand the natural phenomenon

such as thunder-storm, earthquake, or some other

forms of natural disaster.Therefore the

“Supernatural” and “Animism” was emerged in order

to comfort them from fear. They start to pray,

worshiping, and sacrificing some spirits in order to

get some protection and abundance from what they

belief (Sasanka,2004). Interestingly that “Snakes”

which were known as the most dangerous species due

to their abilities which not only the deadly poisoned

but also the silenced movement that could go

everywhere from aboveground or underground into

the water or even in the air. Also, the abilities of being

moulted (skin removal) and especially their

movement that look similar to the wave (water). As a

result, the belief of snakes and serpents had been

interpreted throughout their abilities which

interestingly, their were used to represent both

“Good” and “Evil” depending on which abilities that

each group of people back then were experienced

before.

Among all of those differs meaning, “the God of

Rain” which bring life (vital force), seasons, wealth,

and fortune seem to be the most strongest belief for

people in especially who were resided along the both

side of Mekong riverbank from Yunnan (South of

China) down to Thailand, Lao, Cambodia, and

Vietnam where the mouth of Mekong river is located

(Siripot Laomanajarern,2003).

Figure 2: NAGA in Chiang Mai.

2.5 The Shifted of Paradigm

The myths of Naga were started to twisted their “local

belief” when the group of higher civilisations had

arrived in South East Asia. The Hindu religious was

then influenced to the ruler class and then affected to

every ankle of locality way of living. A new set of

paradigms had strongly established in this area. The

Hindu gods had answered all the questions of

suspicion through “Mahabharata” and “Tri-Bhumi”,

and this is when the folklore of the local people,

especially the story of “Naga” had been integrated to

the new coming “story”.

This is because, in fact, the word Naga was used

to called “the naked local people” or the “Barbarians

ICONARTIES 2019 - 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities

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who worshiped snake. Thus, in order to convert and

proselytised from Animism to Hinduism, the

syncretism was processed. Started with the

manifestation of the greatest mystical of the Hindu

gods power must be complied by the local god, since

then Naga unveiled itself as part of the myths. The

Naga is the king of snakes and serpents, who had

severe poisoned, lived in the deepest part of the

ocean, has abilities to connect the world from

underwater world to earth and even fly to the sky

which all of these abilities has emphasised Naga as

“God of rain”, which could bring forth of seasons,

fertilities, and wellness.

Moreover, there was always dynamic in terms of

civilisation, thus, the new shifted of paradigm had

arrived and this time was “Buddhism”. Again,

locality had to adjusted their mind-set to the new

belief. Same as Naga, the God of rain. In the story of

Buddhism, Naga strongly believed in Buddhism and

even impersonated to meet the lord Buddha and asked

permission to be a monk but refused. So it was

committed itself to serve the lord Buddha, and since

then, it was mentioned that Naga was a bridge that

connected heaven and earth, and did lots of mythical

magic in order to protect the lord Buddha.

Figure 3: NAGA with Buddha.

However, as one may know that generally,

literatures or mythological stories were used as a tool

to serve some purposed, which was same with the

story of Naga. This is because, actually Naga was

represented the local people (barbarian) while the

Hindu gods and the lord Buddha were represented by

the rural class of people which was influenced by the

other civilisation. Then, in order to rule the kingdom,

the folklore stories must be integrated the new issued

in them, just like the new hindu gods had used Naga

as a weapon and neckless of Visanu god and later

become the protector of the lord Buddha. For

example, the Buddha Sheltered by Naga Hood was

the only one kind of Buggha posture that had been

found in South East Asia, which mean the completion

of syncretism (Sowit Bamrungphak, 2014).

2.6 Naga in Thailand

Nowadays, Naga in Thailand had become part of the

Thai culture, which can be divided into 2 difference

group: 1.Naga in the Thai (local) fabric, which was

used as a symbolic that indicated the differentiate

amongst each group of ethnics in Thailand, especially

people in the north of Thailand. 2. Naga in the

Buddhist temple, which was the classic metaphor

objective that stand for the belief and the

representative of the establishment of the 3, cored of

Thai constitution. (Country, Buddhism and the King).

2.7 Cross Cultural Communication

with Fashion Design

Since cross-cultural communication activities occur

in modern society frequently, the research about

cross-cultural communication based on fashion

design are interdisciplinary, so this study will analyse

the literature from the following aspects: 1. Existing

problems in Cross-cultural communication. 2.

Subtheories of basic theories of cross cultural

communication. 3. Fashion design based on

crosscultural communication.

2.7.1 The Current Status and Problems in

Cross-cultural Communication

With the development of globalization tendency in

the present society, contacts between different

cultures become more and more frequent from the

macroscopic angle. However, there are some

inappropriate communication ways in nowadays. For

example, cultural hegemony, cultural conflicts and

cultural misunderstandings. Crosscultural

communication serves for international economic

status and is subject to international politics.

However, because international politics and economy

are unequal, it has led to the occurrence of cultural

hegemony.

The phenomenon of cultural hegemony in cross

cultural communication generally refers to the

imbalance between power countries and weak

countries in cultural exchanges. That is, the influence

of foreign culture on the country more than the

influence of its own culture (Liu, 2010). However, in

real-life interactions, because different cultural

individuals' understanding of culture is always based

on their own growth environment and cultural

Fashion Design in Cross-cultural Communication: Case Study on Thailand Naga and China LONG

459

background, they will lead to the deviation of their

perceptions of foreign culture and communication

situations. Misunderstandings are inevitable (Kramer

and Callahan,2012).

2.7.2 Sub-study on the Basic Theory of

Cross-cultural Communication

Semiotic. The key to cross-culture studies lies in how

to realize effective communication. The

understanding of effective communication refers to

the communication through which meanings of dual

particles from different cultural backgrounds can be

completely understood (Tregaskes, Sheehan and

Poole,2004). However, misunderstanding is

unavoidable. The goal of effective communication

can be construed as “misunderstanding

minimization”. Mutual understanding and trust

between Chinese-Thailand people are realized

through dialogues and cooperation in the cultural

field so as to enhance their friendship. Cultural

studies should start from semiology.

Lotmanrepresented Moscow school deems that

culture is information production and circulating

collective symbol, and moreover, culture itself is a

symbol system. Culture and symbol can supplement

each other. Symbol concepts include signifiant

(signifier) and signifie: the former, which is a part

with material form in symbol, is used to express

meaning form; the latter refers to meaning, concept,

idea, culture, etc. Their combination product is

symbol (Huang,Shen and Zhou,2013).

Symbols in the cultural communication include:

verbal communication, such as spoken language and

characters; non-verbal communication including

space, color, apparel, etc. Language is a symbol

system expressing concepts. Generalized language

can even refer to human culture, so any cultural form

such as myth, religion and art can be a language

(Argyle,1979). One of academic pivots of

crossculture communication lies in interactive

relations between different communities of human

beings as well as between different members in the

same community by crossing cultural barriers. What

people discuss about is not only the identity problem

but also involves changes, appearance of new

identities, rerecognition of old identities and changes

of existing identities. Identity studies in sociological

sense generally start from recognition of ethic group

members for their own culture, religion, belief, myth

and customs and so on.

Myth. Myth is a kind of collective behavior,

“signification” and parole. Myth inverts social and

cultural things into products of natural matters. The

reason for formation of myth is that mythological

form (signifiant of implicit signifiaient) has been

formed by the symbol of direct significiaient. The

direct signifiaient has a process of transforming

signifiant (form) and signifier (meaning) into

signifiant (form) of implicit signifiaient. The set of all

kinds of implicit signifiaient is located in the field of

collective metaphors (Meyer and Rowan,1977). Myth

is usually embodied in image form, which is more

compulsive than characters with greater concrete

meaning. Once having meaning, image becomes a

kind of character, which also results in parole

(Ogden,2007). No matter language or parole or

picture, line or other character types are all

rulegoverned parole forms (Seuil,1970). In fact, myth

belongs to a general field of science, which has

already extended to linguistics, namely semiology.

Apparel. As previously mentioned, symbols

include language and parole and apparel is another

expression form of parole in semiology. Literally

speaking, apparel includes costume and ornament.

Costume refers to worn costume and ornament refers

to adorned ornament (Moss,1981). What if an object

is converted into language? Apparel and art use the

same skills with the aim of converting an object into

a linguistic form which can be told, and this is called

description. Description aims at providing a concept

in a way. Apparel is a type of speech. The second

function of parole is connaissance. Apparel can

convey some saviors through shell fabric and design.

Language assigns sur-code to a real apparel, and

apparel description by semiology is conceptual (Julia

Kristeva,1967). Apparel has the following

embodiment forms: technology, profile, color,

material and verbal. When apparel is used as shifter

of culture, apparel converts a structure into another

structure or shifts from a code to another code, from

reality to meaning, from reality to language and from

intention to language. It is a telling form of culture

and politics such as appearance language in apparel.

Research on Multilevel Symbol System in

Semiotics. Symbol meaning is usually of duality and

interpretability. According to the famous secondary

symbol significant system of Roland Barthes,

denotative meaning and connotative meaning can

divide symbols into primary symbol system and

secondary symbol system, where the latter is

established on basis of the primary symbol system,

but the secondary symbol system is never the final

symbol level, and there are even fourth and fifth

levels, etc. As the implied meaning is deepened,

symbol system may develop towards a higher level.

Eco’s contribution to semiology is famous

interpretant theory. He puts forward that

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representation is object selection while interpretant is

the form of expressing this object with another

symbol. Interpretant is the meaning of a symbol in the

symbol carrier. Culture is assigned to mythological

symbols and expressed by apparel symbols, and this

is a kind of study of multilevel symbol signifiaient

system in the cross-culture study. Paivio (1971)

proposed the dual-coding theory and coded messages

into iogogens and imagines. The two systems will

generate a mutual corresponding relation which can

improve the communication effect.

Decoding and encoding. Encoding and decoding

was first proposed by Stuart Hall，as one of the

representatives of the Birmingham School, he is

considered to be the “world is most influential”

cultural theorist and cultural critic.

Encoding/Decoding(1980)as Hall's representative

work, embodies the thinking characteristics of

inheritance and innovation. Hall was the first person

to propose a theory of cultural decoding. The key

point of the "Hall Model" is the "meaning",

"information" and "stakeholders" in the process of

cultural information dissemination. If there is

"meaning" of encoding in the dissemination mode,

there will be no "consumption". Therefore, it is

necessary to assign "meaning" to the decoding, which

can produce effects, influence, guide or transmit

cultural information to the stakeholders and

audiences (Chen and Morley,2006).The performance

of audience on the reproduction of cultural

information and information reception is diversity,

recurrence and complexity. The audiences will be

decoding some cultural information from the work of

information sender and then give some “feedbacks”.

The sender will according to these “feedbacks” to

reencoding the cultural information to their work

(Hall,1980).The process of information encoding and

decoding is interrelated. The meaning of decoding is

that understanding the true or hidden meaning of

something from a set of letters, symbol and so on in a

form that can be heard or seen correctly. Encoding

means that deliver the cultural information from one

form or system to be another one. It can be found that

the culture information delivery is encoding and

decoding process, and semiotics is the significant

element in this model.

2.7.3 Fashion Design Under the Background of

Intercultural Communication

With the development of globalization and the use of

the Internet, “fast fashion” has become the main

market in the current fashion market. Their market

positioning is different countries and region. Their

consumers are in different cultural contexts.

However, in order to avoid the risks of cross-cultural

communication, the design and products of these

brands lack cultural connotation, and the design of

products tends to be homogenized generally, focusing

on the “sales” rather than the continuity of culture.

(Wan Fang,2018).

Figure 4: Fast fashion brands.

In the current research status, fashion design and

cross-cultural research are separated. The current

phenomenon is that there is no research on the

intersection of these two disciplines. Designers focus

on product design and development, while scholars

on cross-cultural research focus on theoretical

research. In particular, the study of writing is the main

research, such as literary works, literary creation, film

and television works, etc. on (Gudykunst,2003).

This research will realize the integration of

fashion design and cross-cultural communication

disciplines. Using fashion design as a carrier and

integrate cultural differences to conduct research on

fashion design methodology in the context of cross-

cultural communication. This study is oriented at

Chinese market and Thailand market. Two elements

of high popularization rates namely LONG element

and NAGA element taken as case study, concrete

design methodologies are further expounded. How to

use fashion design to match semiotics and cultural

communication, promote market expansion, promote

cultural exchanges between China and Thailand, and

enhance friendship between the two countries.

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Objectives

Hall proposed the famous “decoding” and “encoding”

theory. In the costume design, the costume designer

is the creator of the apparel product and also the

transmitter of cultural information. The designer

codes the culture by semiotics through the selection

and matching of materials, the transformation of

styles, the design of patterns and so on. Therefore, the

apparel product becomes a carrier containing cultural

Fashion Design in Cross-cultural Communication: Case Study on Thailand Naga and China LONG

461

information. As for “Decoding”, the consumer

perceives the form, pattern color and so on of the

apparel product, reverts them into information they

can understand, takes corresponding actions, and then

completes the information delivery process. As for

costume designers, they should decode cultural

codes. Meanwhile, designers should understand ideas

and demands of audiences firstly, place cultural

understanding and audience demand into the design

works and convey this message to audiences.

Afterwards, they should study whether audiences can

encode the message from the design works and adjust

according to feedbacks given by audiences so as to

reduce errors in the cultural communication process.

Figure 5: Fashion design process in cross-cultural

communication

However, in the costume design, how to eliminate

the communication error between designer and

target? First of all, questionnaire survey that is

common among research methodologies should be

conducted, followed by a qualitative analysis of data

so that the designer can have a better understanding

of ideas of audiences.

3.2 Sampling

This study is mainly oriented at young people who are

20-38 years old, as the main group carrying forward

traditional culture consists of young people. With the

rapid economic development, young people have

accepted many new things but they have a limited

understanding of traditional culture. Young people

are the main force of national cultural transmission

and economic development, hope and future of the

country and the main labor forces in the current

society. China and Thailand have an over

onehundred-year communication history. Up to the

new century, continuance of friendly China-Thailand

communication mainly depends on young people. In

addition, Thailand is a tourism country. The survey

indicates that main tourists to Thailand come from

China, and China remains the No. 1 source of foreign

tourists to this country with 9.92 million visitors

during 2017 (Barrow, 2017). Ages of over half of

these Chinese tourists mainly range from 26 to 35

years old.

Figure 5: Thailand tourists

This pilot investigation includes 50 interviewees

from China and Thailand respectively and it lasts

three months from July, 2018 to October, 2018, aimed

at understanding: 1.Their experiences in the cross-

cultural communication and their opinions over the

role played by costume design in the cross-cultural

communication. 2.Interviewees’ understanding of

LONG and NAGA. 3.Their opinions over roles

played by LONG and NAGA in the present costume

design market. 4.Costume design styles interviewees

prefer when animal images in the traditional culture

are taken as design elements.

3.3 Research Process and Results

Analysis

Question 1: What is your age group? Ages of 50

Chinese interviewees range from 26 to 30 years old

while those of Thailand interviewees range from 26

to 35 years old, and most of these interviewees have

accepted and completed higher education.

Question 2: Do you have some friends from other

countries or other provinces and regions. According

to replies in the questionnaire, 50 interviewees from

China and those from Thailand both have friends

from other regions, meaning that cross-cultural

communication behaviours happen in two respective

countries.

Table 1: Question 3

Options Responses

YES 41

NO 9

Chinese responses (50)

Options Responses

YES 38

NO 12

Thai responses (50)

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Question 3: During the communication process

with them, is there any misunderstanding or do

different understandings of the same thing exist? As

for replies to this question, 82% of Chinese

interviewees think that misunderstandings are

generated in the cross-cultural communication

process or they hold different opinions from their

friends, and the percentage of Thailand interviewees

is 76%.

Question 4: Do you think costume can represent

culture, custom and aesthetics of a country or region?

50 interviewees from China and those from Thailand

both think that costume can represent the culture of a

country or region, indicating that costume has already

become an important medium expressing

individuality and cultural background in the

contemporary society.

Table 2: Question 4

Options Responses

YES 50

NO 0

Chinese responses (50)

Options Responses

YES 50

NO 0

Thai responses (50)

Table 3: Question 5

Options Responses

YES 48

NO 0

Don’t know 2

Chinese responses (50)

Options Responses

YES 38

NO 5

Don’t know 7

Thai responses (50)

Question 5: Do you think LONG can stand for

China?/Do you think NAGA is an important

mythological animal in Thailand culture?

As for Question 5, based on the study of NAGA

culture and LONG culture in the literature review, so

different questions are set for different interviewee

groups in the two countries. According to an analysis

of replies, young people from the two countries

perceive the two mythological animals differently.

Table 4: Question 6

Options Responses

Can 4

Can not 10

Know a little 28

Know a lot but not all 8

Chinese responses (50)

Options Responses

Can 2

Can not 16

Know a little 27

Know a lot but not all 5

Thai responses (50)

Question 6: Can you describe the concrete

appearance of LONG/NAGA? Only 4% of Chinese

interviewees believe that they can describe the

concrete appearance of LONG and 10% of them

know about some but all knowledge about the

appearance of LONG, and 86% of them are in lack of

the knowledge. 8% of Thailand interviewees believe

that they can describe the concrete appearance of

NAGA, 16% of them know about some but not all

knowledge about the appearance of NAGA and 76%

of them are in lack of the knowledge, indicating that

young people from the two countries generally have

insufficient recognitions of their respective LONG

culture and NAGA culture.

Table 5: Question 7

Options Responses

Same 17

Different 14

Similar 19

Chinese responses (50)

Options Responses

Same 13

Different 12

Similar 25

Thai responses (50)

Question 7: As shown in the figure, do you think

they are the same thing?

Figure 7: Pictures LONG and NAGA.

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463

According to the analysis of survey data, for both

Chinese interviewees and Thailand interviewees, the

two images can be easily mixed, and these

interviewees lack corresponding knowledge to

distinguish them.

Table 6: Question 8

Options Responses

Like 5

Do not like 27

No fleeing 31

Chinese responses (50)

Options Responses

Like 2

Do not like 33

No fleeing 15

Thai responses (50)

Question 8: Do you like the existing costume

design about NAGA/LONG? Such as pictures. If not,

please specify reasons.

Figure 8: Existing design about LONG and NAGA.

For interviewees from the two countries who

select “dislike” option, the reasons are largely as

follows: Ugly; Completely copy the pattern without

any sense of design; The design is not novel; It can’t

embody aesthetic feeling; It is too old and doesn’t

conform to individual aesthetic appreciation; The

element is too obvious but not young or aesthetic

According to survey results, the target group has

no feeling about designs of this kind in market at

present, because they are mainly “copying patterns”

without any sense of design and don’t conform to

aesthetic standards of the target group.

Table 7: Question 9.

Options Responses

National culture 14

Minimalist 25

Sense of desi

n 47

Young 39

Direct messa

e 28

Maximalist 22

Meta

Chinese responses (50)

Options Responses

National culture 19

Minimalist 24

Sense of design 49

Young 35

Direct message 27

Maximalist 19

Metaphor 38

Thai responses (50)

Question 9: If LONG/NAGA element is applied

to costume design, what design styles do you prefer?

(Multiple-choice question).

Among Chinese interviewees, words, which are

selected the most, include: “sense of design”,

“young”, “direct message” and “metaphor”. Among

Thailand interviewees, “sense of design”, “young”,

“metaphor” and “minimalist” are words which are

selected the most.

Question 10: What do you want to understand

about LONG and NAGA in way of costume design?

(gap filling).

Based on the conclusion made about replies to

interviewees from the two countries, the contents they

want to understand are largely as follows: Story,

Origin, Appearance, Spiritual connotation, Symbolic

meaning.

Summary Questionnaire survey method is used

to study the target. Through the data analysis, most of

Chinese and Thailand interviewees believe that

costume is a mode of cross-cultural communication,

and here the target refers to audiences in the research

method. According to the survey, they lack the

understanding of their respective LONG culture and

NAGA culture. Moreover, they put forward that they

want to understanding origins and symbolic meanings

of LONG and NAGA through costume and then give

design styles they like.

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4 DESIGN PART

4.1 Design Research

The first of a systematic fashion design is to extract

the cultural connotation from the literature review.

And then make the summary about meaning,

symbolism and so on. Based on the above research,

this research made a summary about tangible

intangible features both of NAGA and LONG.

By studying the characteristics of LONG and

NAGA, the following summarizes the characteristics

of LONG and NAGA.

Table 8: Tangible and intangible characteristics about

LONG.

Tangible Intangible

LONG

-Combination of 9

animals

- 2 horns

-Full of scales

-Fins

-“S” Shape

-Stand for Chinese

-Supernatural

-Absolute power

-Incarnation

-Propitious

-Abundance

-Wealth

-Gratitude

-Linkage

-God of Rain

-Balance

Table 9: Tangible and intangible characteristics about

NAGA

Tan

ible Intan

ible

NAGA

-Big Snake with

Crest

-Deadly and

Poisoned

-Full of scales

-Fins

-“S” Shape

-Stand for South

East Asia

-Supernatural

-Sacred

-Incarnation

-Magical power

-Moral and

Immoral

-Abundance

-Linkage Heaven -

Earth andUnder

-God of Water

-Balance

-Buddhism

Protector

LONG NAGA Both of LONG

and NAGA

Origin Combina

tion of 9

animals

Naked

local

people

Myth Imperial

power

Good

and bad

-Supernatural

power

-Connecting

heaven and earth

Spirit People’s

protector

Buddhis

Protecto

-God of rain/water

Wealth/Abundanc

Appea

rance

-“S” Shape

-Scales

-Fins

4.2 Design Positioning

Through by the survey about audiences, the blow

design style got from questionnaire. Audiences prefer

the design style is “sense of design”, “young”, “direct

message”, “metaphor”, “minimalist”. So the design

will focus on these design style.

Figure 9: Minimalist.

Minimalist fashion is defined by one major

principle: keep it simple. Streamlined shapes, a small

selection of colours, Simplicity is the key to

pinpointing this style.

Figure 10:Metaphor

4.3 Design

First, analyse the external profile of LONG and

NAGA, both of them belongs to “S” shape.The whole

shape is in line with the legend that LONG and

NAGA are good at controlling the water. The body is

streamlined and like a wave.

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465

Figure 11: The shape of LONG and NAGA.

Figure 12: Scales and fins.

The common feature of LONG and NAGA is Scales and

fins, extract out of these features.

Figure 13: Design 1.

This Design choose LONG and NAGA from

mythical story as the design elements and combined

them. The series extracts the main features, such as

scales, fin, tail in the LONG and NAGA, and designs

it. This series uses fabric reconstruction, stitch work

and defective fabric texture skills to show the design.

Combining cotton and linen natural fabrics to express

the legend of the LONG and NAGA. The series

extracts the traditional Chinese clothing, and the

details of traditional Thai clothing, then fusion of

Chinese and Thai clothing styles.

Figure 14: Design 2

This series uses fabric reconstruction, stitch work

and defective fabric texture skills to show the design,

is the good and new creation way to show the skin of

LONG and NAGA. First of all, the design combines

of LONG and NAGA appearance. Secondly, LONG

can fly. This design did some pattern, such as sun,

cloud in obvious places, such as cuffs, neckline, belt,

etc., NAGA symbolizes fertility and agriculture, so

the put the pattern of leaves, patterns and leaves on

the costume and stand for wealth and good

agriculture.

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Figure 16: Making skill.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The outcome of this research will be presented in the

form of clothing, extraction of research example

using in costume design to do further cultural

integration. And will hold a fashion show to show the

story about LONG and NAGA, and will do the further

research about audiences’ ideas through by fashion

show. This research will the subjects to be more

fashionable and then combine with modern

technology in order to spread-out the ideal to wider

range of people. Use different costume design

techniques to show the design under cross-cultural

background. Such as, Application of fabric reflects

NAGA and LONG’s physical characteristics. New

image and cultural context of Thai NAGA and

Chinese LONG will be a good example about

combine cross-cultural communication with modern

fashion design. A mature fashion design research

methodology can help fashion designers use clothing

to deliver hidden culture and meet the aesthetic needs

of the audience. This research is a new paradigm that

combines theory, practice and methodology

exploration. It not only proposes new models, but also

reflects them in the research process. This research

wills filly the gap of interdisciplinary learning

between the cross-cultural communication and

fashion design.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to show my deepest gratitude to the

professors who gave me more knowledge. My first

supervisor, Dr. Eakachat Joneurairatana, and all the

professor from PH.D international program in

Silpakorn University. They are respectable,

responsible and resourceful scholar, they have

provided me with valuable guidance in every stage of

the writing of this thesis. They will enlighten me not

only in this thesis but also in my future study. Thanks

for my parents insist and encourage me to keep study.

Thanks for the people who love me, and I didn’t feel

lonely and full of power to continue the studying

road.

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