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Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science

ISSN Online: 2576-0548 ISSN Print: 2576-0556 CODEN: JHASAY
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ArticleOpen Access http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2026.07.007

From Seeing to Experiencing: The Theoretical Logic of AR Try-on Empowering Cross-context Communication of Cultural Symbols

Xifeng Zhan, Qi Guo*

Wuhan Business University, Wuhan 43000, Hubei, China.

*Corresponding author: Qi Guo

Published: July 27, 2026

Abstract

Traditional cultural symbols such as Hanfu long face the dilemma of being watchable but not participable when they enter foreign cultural contexts through static displays. We argue that the essence of augmented reality (AR) try-on in cultural communication is not a more vivid display, but the reconstruction of cultural symbols from visual objects into bodily accessible fields of practice. Using conceptual analysis and theoretical deduction, and drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, Ihde’s postphenomenology, and Hall’s high- and low-context theory, we show that AR try-on lowers the threshold of cross-cultural understanding through quasi-embodiment, which rebuilds a bodily context that compensates for the missing shared background knowledge. We then propose embodied communication as a paradigm that complements the cognitive paradigm: it shifts the analytic focus from how the mind represents culture to how the body participates in culture. The framework opens a bodily gate for cross-cultural dialogue while acknowledging the cultural boundaries of technologically reconstructed contexts.

Keyword

AR try-on; cross-cultural communication; embodiment; embodied communication; cultural symbols; augmented reality

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Copyright

© 2026 by the author(s).
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) license, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not modified or adapted.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

How to cite this paper

From Seeing to Experiencing: The Theoretical Logic of AR Try-on Empowering Cross-context Communication of Cultural Symbols

How to cite this paper: Xifeng Zhan, Qi Guo. (2026) From Seeing to Experiencing: The Theoretical Logic of AR Try-on Empowering Cross-context Communication of Cultural Symbols. Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Science10(7), 785-789.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/jhass.2026.07.007