Exploring the Green Design of Hakka Cultural Creative Textiles for Sustainable Development

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I like to stress that the article I have the pleasure to review is very well written, rich in carefully chosen information, and logical. I found it fascinating and, first and foremost, convincing. History, theory, and experiments/practice are well balanced in it. I think it is significant in the context of the cultural heritage of Hakka and instructive both for scholars and specialists in textiles.

Author Response

We carefully and thoroughly revised this manuscript many times in order for readers to follow and understand easily. We truly appreciate      the reviewer’s feedback recognising our efforts.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper deals with an interesting subject that falls within the scope of Applied Sciences. The manuscript reports an original study, which explores Hakka cultural creative textiles. The results have been obtained using an experiment designed by the authors with 229 participants. The authors examines the effect of blue dye coloring, floral pattern sizes, and pattern types on subject preferences for natural indigo dyed denim fabric. 

The manuscript is clear, relevant for the field and presented in a well-structured manner. The manuscript’s results are reproducible based on the details given in the methods section. The findings are scientifically sound and the research design appropriate to test the hypothesis. The conclusions are consistent with the evidence and arguments presented.

Nevertheless, I have a number of criticisms, which mainly concern the Literature Review, Methods, and Discussion sections.

 

Literature Review

The section Literature Review needs some elaboration with proper references to recent publications (published within the last 5 years). The references cited here are mostly rather old works, published between 1944 and 2016. At the same time, it is in recent years that the empirical experimental study of color preferences and associations has achieved fundamentally new important results. 

 

Methods

Subjects

The sample of respondents is impressive and also rather well-balanced in terms of gender distribution (93 men and 136 women). However, I would suggest describing 229 participants more thoroughly than it is done. I suggest giving some more details about  their country of birth and permanent residence, education, and occupation. I also suggest moving into this section the information about their color vision, which is now presented in the subsection 3.3. Apparatus and Workplace, on page 6.

 

Experimental Design

The authors indicate that they chose blue dye colors from the 22 initial shades shown in Figure 2. They explain why they did not use 7 very light and close to white shades of blue. But they don't explain how or why they chose 4 of the 8 medium shades of blue and 3 of the 7 dark shades. In my opinion, this also needs a brief explanation.

 

Figures and tables

Figures and tables in general are appropriate. They properly show the data and are easy to interpret. However, I can't understand why Figure 2 and Table 1 contain information about each color in three different versions (R, G, B = 0 to 255; R, G, B = 0 to 100%; and xyY values), although these color values are not used in any way in the further analysis. All of these values are equivalent and denote the same thing, but in different notation systems. I believe that the authors need to choose one system, explain to readers why they chose it, and what each of the values in this system means.

Also, I would recommend changing the caption to Figure 2 and the explanation with two asterisks below Table 1. The caption to Figure 2 now only mentions the RGB system, but the Figure also lists the xyY values. In the note to the Table 1, Commission internationale de l'éclairage (CIE) is the name of the organization. The authors should explain why they mention it here and what it has to do with the CIE color system.

However, if the authors heed my advice and leave just one color-coding system, the names should be changed accordingly in a different way.

 

Discussion

I don't think it's quite right to begin this section with a statement about how color is perceived by older women in the US (page 10). Especially since this information has already been given in the Literature Review, on page 3.

In my opinion, this section needs to be substantially revised by focussing on explaining and evaluating what was found, showing how it relates to the provided  updated literature review and research questions, and making an argument in support of overall conclusion.

 

Overall recommendation: major revision.

 

Author Response

Thanks for confirming this manuscript as clear, relevant and well-structured with scientifically sound findings. We have updated our manuscript according to your constructive comments.

Literature Review

Thanks for pointing this out.

As suggested, the authors have done another round of literature search and added three most relevant papers published within the past 5 years on empirical studies of colour preference and associations. (See Manuscript p.3)

• Schloss, K. B., and Palmer, S. E. An ecological framework for temporal and individual differences in color preferences. Vision Res 2017, 141, 95-108. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2017.01.010
• Hanada, M. Correspondence analysis of color–emotion associations. Color Res Appl 2018, 43(2), 224-237. doi:10.1002/col.22171
• Tham, D. S. Y., et al. A systematic investigation of conceptual color associations. J Exp Psychol: General 2020, 149(7): 1311–1332. doi:10.1037/xge0000703

Methods

Subjects

Thank you for bringing this up.

When collecting the basic information of the subjects, we only asked their gender and age, which is required for psychological experiments and papers to be published. For your information, most of them are college students and graduate students born in Taiwan. As for colour vision information, it is indeed in this section on page 5 …” The participants had 20/25 or better visual acuity in addition to normal colour vision…” Subsection 3.3. Apparatus and Workplace simply listed means used to measure those parameters.

Experimental Design

This is very good feedback. The authors have added the following brief explanation in the revised manuscript:

Among the 8 shades of medium blue (B8-B15) and 7 shades of dark blue (B16-B22), B8 still appears to be too light. Although B12, B13, B15, B17, B19, B20, B21 are named blue dyes, they don't look like blue to the naked eye. Therefore, only B9, B10, B11, B14, B16, B18, B22 were chosen, resulting in a total of 7 blue dye colours for the experiment.

Figures and tables

Thanks for this feedback.

The authors firstly searched the names of 22 shades of blue dye for their individual RGB values through 'Traditional color of Japan', and then obtained the CIE(x,y,Y) standard values through "ColorHexa - Color encyclopedia: Information and conversion", which are presented in Figure 2, and finally the 7 shades blue dye used for the experiment are summarised in Table 1. Since this study only analyses various blues, readers may be interested in understanding the RGB ratios of these blues, so the RGB percentages are specially presented in Table 1. Therefore, the arrangement of Figure 2 and Table 1  is deemed appropriate.

Different brands of monitors can present different colour gamut, and even different models of monitors of the same brand can present different colour gamut. Therefore, as long as the experiment is performed on the screen, the RGB colour values set must be reported, and then the colour space CIE(x, y) and the Luminance Y value are measured with an instrument (such as Minolta CA-110 LCD Colour Analyser). If the measured value is found to be very different from the CIE(x, y, Y) standard value, it is necessary to perform colour calibration and Luminance adjustment on the screen to make it as close to the standard value as possible. Therefore, the information in Figure 2 and Table 1 is essential for reproducing the experiment in the future. On the other hand, the authors have moderately modified the title name of Figure 2. (See manuscript p.6); thanks to the reviewer's suggestion.

Discussion

Thanks for this comment.

We have deleted the statement about how colour is perceived by older women in the US (page 10); the revised text now reads as follows:

The Hakka culture, as reviewed in Introduction using Hamilton’s three-component unifying metatheory, green design concept, and cultural creative product design model, revealed a promising cultural creative textile that conform to the concept of sustainable development: natural indigo dyed and stonewashed Tung Blossom denim. That led to further investigation of subjects' preferences for the blue dye colour, flower pattern size and pattern type of the denim in this study.

As for the colour preferences, it may change over time and/or differ between individuals [19], blue is the most preferred colour for both men and women and elicits a more pleasant reaction from consumers [21,22,23]. Undoubtedly,......

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

This paper investigated the user preferences of Hakka cultural creative textiles when they are made of natural dye using different floral pattern types and sizes. The work was found interesting.  The following comments can be addressed for further improvement of the paper-

1. The objectives of this work were not described clearly in the introduction section. Also, it was not clear the relation between the investigated parameters ( natural dye, floral pattern , size etc.)  with the sustainable development of this textile product, therefore, this detail should be introduced in the introduction section briefly and clearly. 

2. It was mentioned the reason not to include the light blue color in this investigation. But the reasons for choosing four shades of medium blue and three shades of dark blue were not described.

3. Author should describe more details of the quality of the subjects- such as - whether all of them are from Hakka culture or not. How they were selected for this study, any criteria ( other than the eye vision) the author followed to select the subjects of this investigation? Why different number of men and women were selected for this study?

4. Whether the VDT workspace layout followed any relevant industry standard??

5. Data analysis should be expanded and described in details so that the results can be understood easily ( specially the terms used in the tables for ANOVA results).

6. The results interpretation could be supported by more literature.

7. Just wondering whether it is possible to present some results based on gender of the subjects, such as how men and women responded to the investigated factors. 

 

 

Author Response

We carefully and thoroughly revised this manuscript many times in order for readers to follow and understand easily. We truly appreciate      the reviewer’s feedback recognising our efforts.

1.Thanks a lot for this comment.

The revised text now reads as follows: (See manuscript pp.2-3)

Using Hamilton’s three-component unifying metatheory (ideology, social structure and technology) to delineate the cultural and history background of Hakka, it naturally revealed the evolution path leading to Hakka’s symbolic fabric, dye colour, and floral pattern, which can then be leveraged for green design and sustainable development. Since the traditional Hakka blue dress……

2.Thanks for asking the selection criteria in detail. We have added the following explanation in the revised manuscript:

Among the 8 shades of medium blue (B8-B15) and 7 shades of dark blue (B16-B22), B8 still appears to be too light. Although B12, B13, B15, B17, B19, B20, B21 are named blue dyes, they don't look like blue to the naked eye. Therefore, only B9, B10, B11, B14, B16, B18, B22 were chosen, resulting in a total of 7 blue dye colours for the experiment.

3.Thanks for pointing this out.

The subjects were recruited as volunteers through an electronic bulletin board (See manuscript p.5). When collecting the basic information of the subjects, we only asked their gender and age, because these two data are required for psychological experiments and papers to be published. Generally speaking, most of them are college students and graduate students born in Taiwan. We did not set any restrictions; as long as the subjects were interested in this Hakka cultural creative textiles, they were welcome to participate. Therefore, the number of male and female participants was the final count.

4.Thanks for checking this out.

To our knowledge, there is no said “industry standard” for the VDT workspace layout; however the authors have used the same schematic diagram in several previously published papers to help the reader perceive how the VDT workspace layout was set up for the experiment.

5.Thanks for raising this request. The revised text now reads:  (See manuscript p.8)

In terms of effect size, the largest partial eta-squared value in Table 3 is Pattern (0.08), followed by Colour, Size and Size × Pattern (all about 0.01). Since most of the Power values in Table 3 are greater than 0.8, this indicates that the sample size is adequate, and represents the probability of avoiding a Type II error.

6.That’s a great suggestion. 

The authors have added 3 papers (published within the past 5 years) on empirical experimental studies of colour preference and associations as suggested. (See Manuscript p.3)

• Schloss, K. B., and Palmer, S. E. An ecological framework for temporal and individual differences in color preferences. Vision Res 2017, 141, 95-108. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2017.01.010
• Hanada, M. Correspondence analysis of color–emotion associations. Color Res Appl 2018, 43(2), 224-237. doi:10.1002/col.22171
• Tham, D. S. Y., et al. A systematic investigation of conceptual color associations. J Exp Psychol: General 2020, 149(7): 1311–1332. doi:10.1037/xge0000703

7.Gender preference is outside the scope of this study; however for your information, based on the existing data collected, women (Rating score=2.85) preferred this Hakka cultural creative textile more than men (Rating score = 2.44), and the difference was significant (t=19.13, p < .001)

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

The introductory part is interesting. The overall research presentation and scientific discussions are good. But, I do not get the novelty of the manuscript. Please show clearly the novelty.

The Haka story is interesting but I do not think it's necessary to present in this paper. 

 

Author Response

Thanks for this feedback. This manuscript has been edited by the well-known institution AJE (verification code 6A2B-279A-E664-FAE3-4D7P); we are very grateful to the reviewers for their careful review.

1.Thanks for pointing this out.

Firstly, after in-depth studies of Hakka culture and image formation, denim fabric was selected as the main axis of development. The traditional Hakka blue dress is mainly blue in colour, unisex, mostly made of cotton, convenient to use, durable and washable and is thus very similar to denim.

Secondly, Tung Blossom growth is highly correlated with the region where the Hakka people reside. Additionally, the features of the Tung Blossom (e.g., its shape, colour, flowers, growth characteristics, and low profile) are consistent with the cultural characteristics of the Hakka people. Therefore, the Tung Blossom is a fitting visual image to represent the Hakka people.

Third, since most denim fabrics are dyed with chemical blue, the production process releases aromatic amine carcinogens, and the resulting waste water is contains harmful substances that cannot decompose naturally. In contrast, the natural indigo dye used in the traditional Hakka blue dress avoids polluting and damaging the environment, which is consistent with the concept of green design and sustainable development.

Fourth, new Hakka cultural creative textiles can be made by using pure cotton denim fabric as the raw material and then processed with natural indigo and stonewashing, followed by repeated launderings, to create the appearance of an indistinct Tung Blossom pattern. However, due to the high costs of natural indigo dye and manual stonewashing, the product should be visually tested to determine the subject’s preferences before being formally manufactured.

Fifth, when performing a Google search for “Tung Blossom jeans”, one will find that not even one related product has been launched; in other words, this product represents a wholly new concept that is worthy of development. As sustainability and luxury are arguably compatible rather than opposing concepts, this cultural creative textile product, made based on the principles of green design and through a cleaner production of natural indigo as a raw material, may pave the way for the creation of new luxury fashions.

The novelty of this study is that blue is the most preferred colour for both men and women and elicits a more pleasant reaction from consumers. Undoubtedly, blue is one of the main colours used for clothing; however, which blue colour is favoured by the public has rarely been addressed in the literature.

2.Thanks for this comment.

According to Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. C., & Williams, J. M. (2008), the model of introduction should include three steps:

1. Common ground (Context / Background),
2. Problem (and Significance), and
3. Response.

The authors just followed the three steps to compose the Introduction (& Literature Review) section. By using Hamilton’s three-component unifying metatheory, the background of Hakka culture and history could be explained clearly to readers.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 5 Report

The article presents a study on color and pattern size and type preferences of indigo blue dyed and stonewashed Tung blossom denim. The study is framed through culture creative product design model and Hamilton’s metatheory, involving Hakka cultural creative textiles succinct analysis and experimental work conducted with digital images on a VDT screen. As mentioned in the conclusions, results with physical samples and final applications was not verified.

 

Overall, in its current state, the article scientific contribution is limited. Also the title does not reflect the main focus of the article.

 

Introduction section lacks base knowledge on sustainability, textile coloration and design, and discussion on the relation with Hakka blue dress and the study. 

 

The reference list should be updated with relevant and recent references. Most references are old and there is recent research and publications in the topics, namely textile cultural products, color and surface design, sustainability, textile dyeing and natural colorants. Furthermore, reference correction is also required. It was detected that some references are not accurate cited, for example, reference 23 (line 113) refers to an article where citation is made for another article regarding dentists, thus indirect citation (apud) is required.

The experimental section also requires revision on description of first time abbreviations. 

Is Table 1 necessary?

 

Discussion of the results lack verification. How do the preference results on digital images support the findings for denim jeans? Could they be used in different applications? Or should they be studied towards specific applications? What is the relation between the study and luxury fashion? What is the relation between the subjects’ sex and the potential application of the findings in men’s or womenswear? 

 

In its current state, my suggestion is that the study needs major restructuring.

Author Response

1.Thanks for bringing up topics for future studies.

As stated in the Conclusion, natural indigo dyes are very expensive and should be visually tested before mass production in order to be able to reduce costs and bring economic benefits, which is the focus of this study. Studies on physical samples and various applications have been identified as possible future research directions in our manuscript, which are beyond the current scope.

2.We took the comment on limited scientific contribution seriously.  Could you elaborate the objective measurement method that led to your claimed score of scientific contribution so that we may learn and try to improve upon it?

The original title of this paper was “Green Design of Hakka Cultural Creative Textiles: The Effect of Blue Colour, Floral Patterns and Pattern Types on the Preference for Natural Indigo Dyed and Stonewashed Tung Blossom Denim Fabric”. An editor of the reputable institution AJE (American Journal Experts) suggested us to shorten it to the current form. Now, after your suggestion, we finally decided to change the title to "Exploring the Green Design of Hakka Cultural Creative Textiles for Sustainable Development".

3.Could you elaborate on "base knowledge”? We were not sure what was lacking. If you meant "basic knowledge", it is well known that a textbook is a better place to cover it. We followed the guideline for a model paper introduction, published by Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. C., & Williams, J. M. (2008), and carefully addressed the following three areas:

1. Common ground (Context / Background),
2. Problem (and Significance), and
3. Response.

As shown in the Introduction (& Literature Review) section of the manuscript. Hamilton’s three-component unifying metatheory was used to delineate the history and social background of Hakka culture, and its technology impact on green design. 

4.Thanks for pointing this out.

The authors have added 3 relevant, recent papers (published within the past 5 years) on empirical experimental studies of colour preference and associations. (See Manuscript p.3)

• Schloss, K. B., and Palmer, S. E. An ecological framework for temporal and individual differences in color preferences. Vision Res 2017, 141, 95-108. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2017.01.010
• Hanada, M. Correspondence analysis of color–emotion associations. Color Res Appl 2018, 43(2), 224-237. doi:10.1002/col.22171
• Tham, D. S. Y., et al. A systematic investigation of conceptual color associations. J Exp Psychol: General 2020, 149(7): 1311–1332. doi:10.1037/xge0000703

As for the reference 23, we have corrected it using direct citation as suggested.

5.Thanks for the feedback.

We have corrected the description of first-time abbreviations. (See manuscript p.6, Figure 2).

6.The authors firstly searched the names of 22 shades of blue dye for their individual RGB values through 'Traditional color of Japan', and then obtained the CIE(x,y,Y) standard values through "ColorHexa - Color encyclopedia: Information and conversion", which are presented in Figure 2, and finally the 7 shades blue dye used for the experiment are summarised in Table 1. Since this study only analyzes various blue colours, readers may be interested in knowing the corresponding RGB ratios; therefore, the RGB percentages are specifically listed in Table 1. Thus, the arrangement of Figure 2 and Table 1 is deemed appropriate.

7.Thanks for raising these questions.

(1) p.12, line 401. In this study, we found that subjects had the strongest preference for Hanaasagi and Ai-iro and favoured a large floral pattern size and the 2-D pattern the most; thus, we presented two designs based on the prototype of “natural indigo dyed and stonewashed Tung Blossom denim jeans”, as shown in Figure 4 (lower panel).

(2) p.12, line 405. In addition, although we focused on natural indigo, the findings are also applicable to chemical blue dyed denim in terms of the independent variables of this study (i.e., blue dye colour, floral pattern size, and pattern type), which undoubtedly expands the scope of application of this study’s findings.

(3) p.12, line390. As sustainability and luxury are arguably compatible rather than opposing concepts [51], this cultural creative textile product, made based on the principles of green design and through a cleaner production of natural indigo as a raw material, may pave the way for the creation of new luxury fashions.

(4) Gender preference is outside the scope of this study; however, for your information, based on our collected data, women (Rating score=2.85) preferred this Hakka cultural creative textile more than men (Rating score = 2.44), and the difference is significant (t=19.13, p < .001)

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

I have carefully reviewed the corrected version of the article and believe that the manuscript has not been sufficiently improved to warrant publication in Applied Sciences.

A major concern with the paper remains the interpretation and referencing of the literature on color research in the Literature Review and Discussion sections. 

The authors included three new sources into the list of references. However, in my opinion, this has not yet had any effect on the quality of the Literature Review. In such a form as it is now, this section doesn’t locate the study effectively within the recent international literature in the field of color preference and color association research. 

In the Discussion section the authors added only 7 lines saying that the Hakka culture “revealed a promising cultural creative textile that conform to the concept of sustainable development” (page 5, lines 327–332) and that the colour preferences “may change over time and/or differ between individuals” (line 333). The content of the remaining paragraphs of this section has not changed in any way and still needs to be substantially revised. The research findings still need interpretation based on a thorough investigation of the literature. There is a lack of integration of the research findings with previous work on color, as well as their comparison with other relevant findings from the literature. 

 

Minors: 

1.    I suggest to add to the keywords the terms “Hakka” and “sustainable development” that appear in the title and abstract of the article.

2.    The sentence on page 3, lines 131–133 seems to be grammatically incorrect:

Conceptual colour associations that appear to be universal across all cultures (e.g., white – purity; blue – water/sky related; green – health; purple – regal; pink – “female” traits). 

3.    I believe that the information about the subjects that the authors provided in their response to my comments should be included in the text of the article.

Author Response

We truly appreciate reviewer spending time to carefully read our manuscript. One thing we would like to point out is that our review of colour research merely set up the background for why and what led to the design of our experiment, Thus, for the literature review, our focus has been primarily on blue color related articles. If the reviewer could point out directions or any specific articles that may enrich the content of this manuscript, please let us know and we will be more than happy to adequately reference them. Nonetheless, we have added two more references to further support our findings.

Meanwhile, we would also like to stress our efforts and many other contributions, in addition to colour preference, that we have contributed in this paper.

Firstly, the rich Hakka culture background and evolution that blazed various ways for culture creative design and how they may be leveraged for sustainable development.

Secondly, colour blue in general is preferred by public, yet so many different shades of blue were rarely analysed and studied for preference comparison, as we pointed out in chapter 5 Discussion. This led to our efforts for the empirical design to explicitly compare people’s preferences among most popular blue shades, followed by quantitative analysis, which we believe was a pioneer work in this field.

Thirdly, we further explored different sizes of flower patterns on the blue fabric background as additional options for consumers’ preference comparison. The afore-mentioned areas are the main focus of this paper and we hope that the abundant information revealed by our study was not overlooked.

1.Thanks for this suggestion. They have been added to the title and keywords.

2.Nice catch! We deleted the extra “that” to read “Conceptual colour associations appear to be …...”

3.The revised manuscript now includes the information as you suggested.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 5 Report

The novelty/contribution of this work should be more clearly expressed.

 

In the introduction, I found that some themes should be discussed. 

 

Perhaps discussion on future work could provide greater insight in the research potential.

Author Response

1.Thanks for pointing this out.

Firstly, after in-depth studies of Hakka culture and image formation, denim fabric was selected as the main axis of development. The traditional Hakka blue dress is mainly blue in colour, unisex, mostly made of cotton, convenient to use, durable and washable and is thus very similar to denim.

Secondly, Tung Blossom growth is highly correlated with the region where the Hakka people reside. Additionally, the features of the Tung Blossom (e.g., its shape, colour, flowers, growth characteristics, and low profile) are consistent with the cultural characteristics of the Hakka people. Therefore, the Tung Blossom is a fitting visual image to represent the Hakka people.

Third, since most denim fabrics are dyed with chemical blue, the production process releases aromatic amine carcinogens, and the resulting waste water is contains harmful substances that cannot decompose naturally. In contrast, the natural indigo dye used in the traditional Hakka blue dress avoids polluting and damaging the environment, which is consistent with the concept of green design and sustainable development.

Fourth, new Hakka cultural creative textiles can be made by using pure cotton denim fabric as the raw material and then processed with natural indigo and stonewashing, followed by repeated launderings, to create the appearance of an indistinct Tung Blossom pattern. However, due to the high costs of natural indigo dye and manual stonewashing, the product should be visually tested to determine the subject’s preferences before being formally manufactured.

Fifth, when performing a Google search for “Tung Blossom jeans”, one will find that not even one related product has been launched; in other words, this product represents a wholly new concept that is worthy of development. As sustainability and luxury are arguably compatible rather than opposing concepts, this cultural creative textile product, made based on the principles of green design and through a cleaner production of natural indigo as a raw material, may pave the way for the creation of new luxury fashions.

The novelty of this study is that blue is the most preferred colour for both men and women and elicits a more pleasant reaction from consumers. Undoubtedly, blue is one of the main colours used for clothing; however, which blue colour is favoured by the public has rarely been addressed in the literature.

2.We appreciate reviewer’s feedback to help improve our manuscript; however, it is very difficult for us to guess on which themes should be discussed. In any case, we did add the following discussion on future research directions: “Therefore, in future studies, subjects of different age groups and different countries should be recruited to repeat this study in an attempt to broaden the applicability of the experimental results. “(See 6. Conclusion)

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 3

Reviewer 2 Report

I have no complaints to make about this revised form of the manuscript, and recommend "acceptance".