With the globalization of art and designs, perspectives of one’s design and the identity of the work become important. Cultures, languages, and history are all very important elements in shaping design identities so I studied my cultural history and other East Asia design histories to have a better understanding of the art of design. Even the word ‘design’ in the context go East Asia holds various meanings in each country. The word ‘design’ is usually ‘a translation either directly from English or through double translations’. Terms such as ‘sekkei/設計’ in Japanese, ‘sheji/设计’ in Chinese, and ‘dijain/디자인’ in Korean basically means design (as in to create, fashion, execute, or construct according to plan). It is believed that in East Asia ‘the discipline [of design] started the earliest’ in Japan, and Japan ‘has been leading the design history and study’ with three scholarly associations: The Japan Society for the Science of Design (JSSD) founded in 1954 forcing on design practice, also includes a piece of design history. Isho Gakkai (The Japan Society of Design (JSD) established in 1959, builds a solid academic foundation for design history and study in Japan’ but unfortunately only accessible in Japanese and from the abstracts in English. Dezainshigaku Kenkyukai (Design History Workshop Japan (DHWJ), the most recent group founded by two young historians who have close contact with design historians in the UK and in Eastern European countries. On the other hand China ‘has been busy catching up to world standards’, since ‘design history has been undervalued’ in history. The lack of design development and history is hard since China has been through a politically irreconcilable republican period under Japan, a colonial period of Hong Kong under Britain, etc. However, it is still very hopeful that Chinese design history and study ‘will become more specialized and will lead to more original research with more critical input into these main directions’. Overall, the fact that historical events and culture in one country are intertwined with its design history helps us to think more about the identity of a design.
Works Cited
History of China, Korea, Japan & Southeast Asia … – Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhNF_EbRgHo.
How Chinese & Japanese Cultures Influenced Each … – Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhJjDj7w4aQ.
Huppatz, D. J. “Globalizing Design History and Global Design History.” Journal of Design History, vol. 28, no. 2, 2015, pp. 182–202., https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epv002.
Kikuchi, Y. “Design Histories and Design Studies in East Asia: Part 1.” Journal of Design History, vol. 24, no. 3, 2011, pp. 273–282., https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epr024.
Wong, W. S. “Design History and Study in East Asia: Part 2 Greater China: People’s Republic of Wong, W. S. “Design History and Study in East Asia: Part 2 Greater China: People’s Republic of China/Hong Kong/Taiwan.” Journal of Design History, vol. 24, no. 4, 2011, pp. 375–395., https://doi.org/10.1093/jdh/epr034.
