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Abstract
The Internet offers new ways of imaging and 'imagining' national belonging and cultural identities in contemporary Chinese societies such as Singapore. The Chinese society is also a key representative in Tu Wei-Ming's first symbolic universe - including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - under a 'Cultural China' (Tu 1994). Various cultural discourses indicate that this nation-state is capable of managing culture to maintain national competitiveness within global capitalism (Wee 2000, Chua 1995). This 'local national cultural ism' is significantly manifested in Chinese media and entertainment websites from Singapore. Within the Asia Pacific region, the notion of an emerging 'pan-Chinese' cultural identity for commercial exchange and interaction with regional and global markers has been an appealing economic construct (Nyiri 1999).
In Singapore the Chinese media and entertainment websites employ design strategies to attract foreign investors and cater for local 'heartlanders' with success. The Singapore media sire is carefully scrutinized, presented and aligned with its economic policies and agendas in presenting the country as a young and vibrant society. Although media and entertainment form a key aspect of popular culture in contemporary Singapore, the visual communication and content of the websites also provide an 'institutional memory' and design strategies which emphasize the distinctiveness of cultural identity. This is research interrogates the perception of 'Chinese' identity by Singaporean youth in a pilot study which analyses user responses to a prototype for interface design in web-based communication. In addition, a comparative analysis of three design components - colour, icon/symbol and visual metaphor – is examined with reference to the social construction of local, 'glocal' and cultural meanings in the media and entertainment websites-from Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. The research concurs with current literature that cultural identity is mediated by design and communicative strategies to resonate with the target audience. Although the design strategies for representing a 'pan -Chinese' identity have yet to be explored, 'Cultural China' plays a major role in regional/global economic development.