Culture influence on aesthetic perception of Chinese and western paintings

Abstract

Previous research showed that different cultures play a significant role in influencing people's perception and cognition: Eastern people attend more to the background and context, whereas western people focus more on objects. However, the culture influence on people's aesthetic perception and experience has not been systematically explored. In the first part of our study, we measured the eye movements of Chinese and western participants while they viewed Chinese traditional Ink-wash paintings, and we found that the Chinese participants had longer fixation time in the white space areas than did the western participants. In the second part of the study, we measured their eye movements while they viewed different paintings composed by the linear perspective or scattered perspective techniques, and the results suggest that the western participants are more sensitive to the perspective difference between paintings. The findings contribute to the understanding of culture influence on people's aesthetic perception of visual art and visual communication.