| Abstract: | The main purpose of this study is to explore visual aesthetics and preferences about proportions of the human body. Taiwan was a war-torn country, and times were turbulent and unsafe. The Chinese and Western cultures were both introduced to Taiwan; after cultural integration and assimilation into mainstream Taiwanese culture. People in Taiwan sought beauty by following Western elements without compromising their traditional style. Structured as three stages, this essay will evaluate whether or not Western influences has the power to affect visual aesthetics of body proportions in Taiwan. The first stage aims to discuss the differences between Eastern and Western perspectives in aesthetics and proportions, as well as focus on the aesthetics of human body proportions in Chinese culture, tracing its evolution from the Ming dynasty to the modern period. In addition, through “Documentary analysis” method, six Ming dynasty portrait painters have been chosen in this stage, such as Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin, Qiu Ying, Du Jin, Zeng Jing and You Qiu. In the second stage, it examined the aesthetics of Taiwanese points of view in body proportions by changing the leg lengths; furthermore the results of this stage showed that the Western mindset has been largely considered of influence on Taiwanese aesthetic opinion.
Finally, the last stage is to investigate samples of human body proportions. The fourteen samples were evaluated from which three sense perception adjectives, “looks the best”, “like the most” and “ideal body proportion” were extracted to facilitate the evaluation of body proportions. The samples are chosen based on the first two stages; there are seven body proportions. The total number of samples is fourteen, including male and female. Within “questionnaire survey” and “ranking” methods, the consistent tendencies were observed in “the Kendall's coefficient of concordance”, confirming the validity of the result. Moreover, “the one-way ANOVA” showed that there have been the significant differences between every average value. From “Duncan new multiple range test”, which can see the proportions of Wen Zhengming are the ones that subjects prefer. The outcome also found that both the Western and Eastern people selected shorter figure in female sample. In conclusion, this study provides empirical evidence on the human body proportions of Western and Eastern, and proves that the aesthetic of body proportion of Eastern people are similar to the Western. |
