A SEMIOTIC STUDY ON THE VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION OF XUNPU WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY MEDIA CONTEXTS

บทคัดย่อ

This research article aims to: 1) examine how the visual image of Xunpu women is reconstructed and circulated in contemporary media environments; 2) analyze the semiotic mechanisms through which symbolic elements are selectively preserved, emphasized, or disconnected from their original cultural meanings; 3) conduct a semiotic research study by collecting visual data from museum archives, traditional references, and contemporary media platforms, and analyzing these materials through comparative analysis. Adopting a qualitative approach, this study differentiates between the levels of signifier and signified to examine the visual systems of clothing, headwear, and earrings associated with Xunpu women. Research materials are obtained through purposive sampling of representative visual images, and interpretive semiotic methods are employed to analyze visual form, structural relationships, and culturally embedded meanings.

The research results indicate that: 1) the reduction of cultural meaning in contemporary representations of Xunpu women does not stem from the disappearance of symbolic elements themselves, but from the disruption of structural relationships between visual form, cultural practice, and social function; 2) in contemporary media representations, individual visual elements are frequently extracted and reorganized according to principles of visual efficiency, resulting in the loss of proportional and relational logic inherent in the original visual system; 3) design-oriented semiotic translation strategies that re-establish disrupted structural coherence can directly inform the design and dissemination of cultural products. Based on these findings, this study proposes an analytical framework that integrates semiotic analysis with design translation, offering a transferable model for addressing meaning reduction in the contemporary dissemination of female imagery associated with intangible cultural heritage.