Rob's ecstatic account of product design in the new China is rather magical if not terrorfying. We seriously don't have to worry about the decay of the USA - its cultural wars are trival by comparison with this dream of infinite objects.
Image the Chinese future of the world consuming itself as its own edible and cute china doll?
Beefheart wrote that he didn't want to kill his china pig (piggy bank). I think we need to kill our china dreams of the infinite possible objects.
We have little understanding of dragons. We are expert with tygers.
40% of the world's cement? the world will tip on its axis?
only half joking
keith russell
OZ newcastle
(we export 70million tonnes of coal per annum)
>>> Rob Curedale <[log in to unmask]> 11/05/04 09:27 AM >>>
John and others,
I have just returned from visits to a number of design schools in China
and some talks in Portugal.
I also attended the opening of a new design Center in the city of Wuxi
and the associated conference which attracted prominat global design
figures.
The Chinese Government has identified product design as being of
specific strategic importance for building the economy. A government
minister indicated that China now consumes 30% of world aluminium, 30%
of coal and 40% of cement.The new building has an auditaurium with
seating we estimed for 10 to 20,000 people as well as huge floor area
for exhibitions. It will be the venue for annual design award ceremony
like the American film awards. China spent about $8 million US on the
opening which included performances by Chinese pop and Opera Stars,
Dancing Dragons, 100 foot high helium filled Astro Boys, much confetti
and many other things. One design school I visited indicated that they
had 40,000 applicants for 300 places. It left me in no doubt that China
will become the world center of product design in the coming decades
because of the cultural heritage of the country and the targeted
national resources going into design.
All road signs in the cities I visited were now in English or European
script and Chinese Script.
In Korea now many children are learning Chinese langage as their second
language rather than English. I was told that there are about 200,000
distinct word pictograms. The written languauge presents a daunting
problem for Westerners to access their written material.
______________________________
R o b C u r e d a l e
Professor, Chair Product Design
College for Creative Studies Detroit
201 East Kirby
Detroit MI 48202-4034
Phone: 313 664 7625
Fax: 313 664 7620
email: [log in to unmask]
http://www.ccscad.edu
______________________________
>>> John Broadbent <[log in to unmask]> 11/03/04 5:48 AM >>>
I would very much like to hear from anyone on the list who has also
experienced this problem, specifically in terms of ways to make these
publications accessible to a wider community(e.g. as bi-lingual
publications). I realise that the problem is not peculiar to Taiwan,
and that relevant experiences may be available from other Asian
countries, non-English-speaking Europe(and North America?!), and South
America to name some more obvious centres of design. Strategies to
overcome this communication barrier are urgently needed.
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