About Shan
What makes people feel like they belong?
From Taiwan to Australia, China, and now Canada, I’ve spent over a decade building globally recognized brands and witnessing how culture shapes what people value, feel, and love. Yet what stayed with me wasn’t the brands themselves, it was the human connections they revealed and made possible.
That curiosity brought me to human-computer interaction (HCI) research. Today, as an instructor of International Business at the University of Guelph and a PhD candidate in HCI, I focus on exploring technology-mediated social support that enhance connectedness and foster meaningful social bonds across languages, cultures, and communities.
RECENT PROJECTS
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Bridging HCI (social computing), applied psychology, and cultural studies, my research is driven by a fascination with culture, identity, and how people connect across language and culture. I study transnational phenomena and the communities that emerge around them, with a particular focus on how social media environments enable belonging, meaning-making, and social support.
My recent work explores the design of live streaming experiences in various transnational interested-based communities (big or small), examining how parasocial experiences and fan-to-fan interactions can be intentionally shaped to foster connection, resilience, and collective engagement.
Shan Kuo and Her Research Keywords: live streaming, K-pop, social connection, transnational community, multiculturalism, multilingualism, human-centric design, social media
Fans are not passive consumers. They are active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings.
Henry Jenkins
Designing communication feature to ease the cognitive load of fans during K-pop live streams.
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https://uoguelph.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_djzgZdRp7V92Ycu
K-pop Community Studies
Exploring the live streaming social interaction context and requirements of sports fans across gender.
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https://uoguelph.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9LjWO6QAQhRSShw
Sports Community Studies
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