Charles,

Thanks to you and all who have commented on China and design.  Anyone who
fails to account for China in a vision of design in the future is making a
major mistake.  But when we get past the general observations about China
and design the issues become much more interesting and challenging.  False
steps in exploring design in China are common, but the beginnings are being
made.

Four notes.

1.  I have been participating in a Task Force reviewing the place of design
in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta.  The PRD is now the largest
manufacturing region in the world, and its location adjacent to Hong Kong
is no small matter of interest to everyone.  The report of the Task
Force--"Shaping the Future:  Design for Hong Kong"--has just been issued,
with remarkable response from the Chinese community.  For example, several
hundred CEO's attended a presentation of the report, and another
presentation to the design community of Hong Kong had nearly 400 attendees.
John Heskett wrote the summary of the task force work, and the report is a
handsome design by Freeman Lau (Lau Siu Hong) and his company (Kan and Lau
Consultants).  I don't know where one could obtain a copy of the report,
but it will be worthwhile if you are interested in design in China.  You
may want to try the Hong Kong Polytechnic University--perhaps the web site
will help, I do not know.

2.  I recently delivered a keynote address at the first
national/international conference on design education in China.  The venue
was Shantau Province--the semi-private university located in Shantau.  In
the fall the papers from this conference will be published in Chinese for
distribution among Chinese institutions.  I do not know whether there will
be English translations--my wife translated my address, so I do have the
English text, though it can't be released until the publication in the
fall, and I may publish it separately in English in the West.  The issues
of East and West were fascinating, and I attempted to identify key issues
for the future.  I suggest that one keep an eye out for this, if anyone is
interested in developments in China.

3.  The Asian edition of Business Week (July 7) contains an interesting set
of articles on design in Asia.  One article asks "will China dominate
design."  Useful and timely.

4.  Those interested may also want to see Shou Zhi Wang, "Chinese Modern
Design: A Retrospective," Design Issues VI, No. 1, pp. 49-78.  Also, see
the forthcoming special issue of Design Issues on "Design in Hong Kong."
This issue is guest edited by Hazel Clark and contains a set of very
interesting papers.

Dick Buchanan
Carnegie Mellon University

--On Wednesday, July 30, 2003 11:39 AM -0400 Charles Burnette
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Dear Ken
> Thanks for a very cogent and substantive overview on
> the role of China in World affairs. It has caused me
> to reflect on world wide shifts in the scale, location
> and nature of economic power and the contributions to
> world culture that result.
> In a broad brush over-simplified outline covering only
> the last 500 years or so: Portugal and Italy motivated
> expansion; Spain - conquest; the Netherlands -
> commerce; Great Britain - empire and institutions; and
> the USA - markets and services - all representing
> western migration and increases in scale; No country
> has had world hegemony based on natural resources
> alone - even with regard to oil.  It is interesting to
> consider what happens in countries which no longer
> retain their position; the Netherlands builds through
> overseas investment; Great Britain exports highly
> educated people; etc. Many countries who have never
> had world economic power have found niche roles based
> on their cultural strengths (France-luxury goods and
> urban conveniences (LVH,Deceaux), Japan (who briefly
> became a major economic power) - small scale
> technologies, (Camera's, games, automata, etc); South
> Korea - large manufacturing conglomerates (Hyundai,
> Samsung, etc); Scandinavia - home furnishings,(Ikea)
> etc. The USA has so far focused on its
> entrepreneurial, management, and marketing strengths.
> China will quickly acquire these competencies through
> its own cultural strengths . In this regard, it is
> informative to recall that in Hawaii the Chinese
> assimilated and became bankers and businessmen,(the
> Japanese remained unassimilated and became labor
> leaders and politicians.) Having inexpensive labor,
> manufacturing and a huge market China is fast becoming
> once again the world's major economic power(as Ken
> notes). If the USA is now primarily a service economy
> designers should closely fashion their services with
> this in mind. This will require a broader vision of
> design than most designers have and that most schools
> teach. I agree with Jacque in this regard and am
> distressed at the lack of initiative in the field.
>
> (parenthetically) to Jacque,and  Glenn
> Having been one of jurors on the 2003 IDEA/
> Businessweek awards, I can tell you that the benefits
> to the manufacturer, user and environment were among
> the criteria we considered in making the awards - even
> if Businessweek chose not to highlight them. Generally
> speaking, the submissions this year were much worse
> than my previous time as juror, and cause for concern.
> Except for one firm (IDEO, who has mastered
> communication to the point that their submissions are
> easily recognized without being identified,) most
> designers aren't really that good at communicating
> what they do,despite believing that they are.
>
> Best
> Chuck
>
> Dr. Charles Burnette
> 234 South Third Street
> Philadelphia, PA 19106
> Tel: +215 629 1387
> e-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhDs
> in Design
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Ken
> Friedman
> Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 2:28 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Early Voices: The Leap to Language -- New
> York Times article
> available
>
>
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> Been traveling for the past week or so, following the
> threads on PhD-Design from airports and hotels.
>
> Very interesting.
>
> While I may return with some substantive thoughts,
> I want to thank Klaus for drawing my attention to
> a New York Times science article by Nicholas Wade
> titled Early Voices: The Leap to Language.
>
> This article appeared on July 15 in the "Science
> desk" section of the NYT. While the web site holds
> articles free for 7 days, older articles must be
> purchased from the archives. I've bought a copy
> and I'll be happy to share it.
>
> Copyright prohibits publishing it or posting it to
> the list, but fair use for non-commercial and
> academic purposes allows me to send a copy to
> individual colleagues.
>
> If you'd like a copy, please drop me a note at
>
> <[log in to unmask]>
>
> with the word
>
> Language
>
> in the Subject header.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Ken Friedman
>
>
>
> Excerpt from first section:
>
> --snip--
>
> July 15, 2003, Tuesday
>
> SCIENCE DESK
>
> Early Voices: The Leap to Language
>
> By NICHOLAS WADE (NYT) 3734 words
>
> Bower birds are artists, leaf-cutting ants practice
> agriculture,
> crows use tools, chimpanzees form coalitions against
> rivals. The only
> major talent unique to humans is language, the ability
> to transmit
> encoded thoughts from the mind of one individual to
> another.
>
> Because of language's central role in human nature and
> sociality, its
> evolutionary origins have long been of interest to
> almost everyone,
> with the curious exception of linguists.
>
> As far back as 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris
> famously
> declared that it wanted no more speculative articles
> about the origin
> of language.
>
> More recently, many linguists have avoided the subject
> because of the
> influence of Noam Chomsky, a founder of modern
> linguistics and still
> its best-known practitioner, who has been largely
> silent on the
> question.
>
> Dr. Chomsky's position has "only served to discourage
> interest in the
> topic among theoretical linguists," writes Dr.
> Frederick J. Newmeyer,
> last year's president of the Linguistic Society of
> America, in
> "Language Evolution," a book of essays being published
> this month by
> Oxford University Press in England.
>
> In defense of the linguists' tepid interest, there
> have until
> recently been few firm facts to go on. Experts offered
> conflicting
> views on whether Neanderthals could speak. Sustained
> attempts to
> teach apes language generated more controversy than
> illumination.
>
> But new research is eroding the idea that the origins
> of language are
> hopelessly lost in the mists of time. New clues have
> started to
> emerge from archaeology, genetics and human behavioral
> ecology, and
> even linguists have grudgingly begun to join in the
> discussion before
> other specialists eat their lunch.
>
> "It is important for linguists to participate in the
> conversation, if
> only to maintain a position in this intellectual niche
> that is of
> such commanding interest to the larger scientific
> public," writes Dr.
> Ray Jackendoff, Dr. Newmeyer's successor at the
> linguistic society,
> in his book "Foundations of Language."
>
> Geneticists reported in March that the earliest known
> split between
> any two human populations occurred between the !Kung
> of southern
> Africa and the Hadza of Tanzania. Since both of these
> very ancient
> populations speak click languages, clicks may have
> been used in the
> language of the ancestral human population. The
> clicks, made by
> sucking the tongue down from the roof of the mouth
> (and denoted by an
> exclamation point), serve the same role as consonants.
>
> That possible hint of the first human tongue may be
> echoed in the
> archaeological record. Humans whose skeletons look
> just like those of
> today were widespread in Africa by 100,000 years ago.
> But they still
> used the same set of crude stone tools as their
> forebears and their
> archaic human contemporaries, the Neanderthals of
> Europe.
>
> Then, some 50,000 years ago, some profound change took
> place.
> Settlements in Africa sprang to life with
> sophisticated tools made
> from stone and bone, art objects and signs of long
> distance trade.
>
> --snip--
>