Bola Sociology Design

China: China Design Now

August 22nd, 2008

This is the one but last day of our special about China, and the topic is design and architecture. An event that covered a lot of the contemporary production in these fields was China Design Now, which took place from March to July 2008 in England. China Design Now brings an interesting retrospective about the country, and draws parallels between its imperial past and the urbanization of today. Check out more information and images, after the jump.

The proposal of the exhibition was a trip through the main cities of the Chinese coast: Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. The curators’ research started in Shenzhen, the birth of the contemporary graphic design in China. Thirty years ago, the city was no more than a little fishing village, and now it stands out as an important economic center, with a population of over 10 million. Since the city was a center for the printing industry, young design students and professionals saw it as a potential market. With the freedom to create something completely different, without the political mannerism of the past, a new experimental language was born, and it was like nothing the country had ever seen. The new generations of designers are able to add even more global influences into their work, and combine that to the local culture in an amazing way. The new guidelines of this generation include collaboration with artists, technology, and an identification with the growing Chinese youth culture.

Shanghai is the most internationally recognized Chinese city since the XIX century. Known as “Paris of the East”, it was the main disseminating point for the “Modern China” — the first car engine, the first movie, and the first Qipao dress appeared there. With the economic rebirth back in 1992, the city began to grow even faster, and is not a powerful economic center, the nest of the emerging Chinese middle class. Despite of the criticism against the consumption lifestyle that has been growing in China, Shanghai has been a trendsetter in the desire market.

Beijing, the Chinese capital, has never lost its place as the nation’s political and cultural center. In order to host this year’s Olympics, the city went through a quick and expressive urban renovation in every aspect: cultural and sports infrastructure, real estate, commerce and sustainability. China is revamping its image for the world to see, and this has been attracting architects who are able to imagine the new, each with its vision about how the new China should look like.

We’ll be back on Monday for the last day of out China special. See you then.