Some ideas for my thesis

1. How do cultural backgrounds affect people's cognitive processing of visuals?

Previous research shows some interesting differences in the image reading habits of easterners and westerners. For instance, people from high-context culture pay more attention to the background elements and try harder to construct relationship involving the characters in foreground with the background. (Nisbett 2003) It is explained that “Easterners live in a more socially complicated world and have to pay more attention to the context of a situation.” (Frith & Karan 2007, 3)

I’m interested in do an experimental study to justify some theories about the relationship between cultural backgrounds and image reading habits. But I’ve not found a suitable theory. I’m now searching and reading literature on visual literacy and intercultural communication.

2. Compared with the western, does Asian pop culture prefer males with feminine appearances?

I found that the pop stars produced by Asian entertainment industry look much more feminine than those who were from the western. On the other hand, personally I prefer males with feminine looks. So I’m wondering whether Asian culture has different standard of what is beautiful for the male, whether Asians prefer men looking like women.

I may research in Second Life to see whether Asian players tend to make their avatars look more feminine or not. But I haven’t found any directly related literature yet.

References:

Nisbett, R. E. (2003). The geography of thought: How Asians and Westerners think differently…and why. NY: Free Press

Frith, Katherine. Karan, Kavita (2007). Global Visuals: Is A Picture Worth A Thousand Words? Conference Papers -- International Communication Association; 2007 Annual Meeting, p1-22, 22p