The Emergence of Research Interests: How Cultural Meaning Is Reconstructed Across Different Contexts
This research stems from my long-standing interest in the mechanisms through which cultural meanings are transformed during processes of cultural transmission. As a creative practitioner working across both Chinese and Western cultural contexts, I have gradually come to recognise that culture is an evolving social practice, with meanings that continuously develop in response to changing social environments, media forms, and relationships with audiences.
Within the context of globalisation and the rapid development of digital media, traditional culture has entered increasingly diverse fields of communication, including commercial branding, screen narratives, online cultures, and digital creative practices. Traditional cultural resources are continuously rearticulated across different media platforms, forming new connections with contemporary society through visual languages, narrative structures, and interactive experiences. Through this process, cultural meanings are reshaped according to different contexts, generating new forms of cultural expression.
Therefore, my research focuses on how cultural meanings are transformed through media translation, how they develop into new narrative forms, and how traditional culture continues to evolve within contemporary communication environments.
This research interest has emerged through my creative practice and ongoing observations. Through my practice-based reflections documented on UAL MyBlog, I have explored cultural symbols, visual communication, and contemporary media expressions, using case studies to examine how traditional culture enters and develops within new communication systems. These reflections have encouraged me to further investigate the processes of cultural translation and the role of media in shaping and producing cultural meanings.
From Cultural Symbols to Cultural Translation: The Re-expression of Traditional Culture in Global Brand Communication
My initial interest in this research direction developed through observing the cultural communication strategies of global luxury brands, particularly how traditional cultural elements are incorporated into global brand narratives during internationally recognised cultural occasions, such as the Spring Festival. These observations were further developed through my practice-based reflections documented on UAL MyBlog (https://24046132.myblog.arts.ac.uk/), where I explored examples of cultural symbols, visual communication, and contemporary brand narratives.
In recent years, many international brands have transformed traditional Chinese cultural resources into contemporary forms of communication through limited-edition products, visual campaigns, exhibitions, and immersive experiences. Cultural elements such as the Chinese zodiac, traditional patterns, festival symbols, and intangible cultural heritage crafts have been reinterpreted and incorporated into global cultural communication through brand visual systems and consumer experiences.
This phenomenon has encouraged me to examine how traditional cultural meanings shift during processes of media transformation. When entering new communication contexts, cultural symbols interact with different narrative frameworks, visual languages, and audience expectations, resulting in new forms of cultural expression. For example, traditional crafts can communicate cultural values and aesthetic meanings through contemporary brand narratives, while traditional festivals can become experiential platforms for cross-cultural engagement through modern forms of communication.
Through observing these cases, I have developed a deeper interest in the mechanisms of cultural translation: how traditional culture is reinterpreted, reorganised, and circulated within new social contexts, and how new meanings are generated through contemporary media practices.
These reflections have led me to explore a central research question: how does traditional culture undergo processes of meaning transformation through contemporary media, and how can it develop new narrative forms that connect audiences across different cultural backgrounds?