The Evolution of chinese interior design 1900-2020
Background
With development of globalization , interculture communication is becoming very common . Interior design is part of culture , in this research report , I am going to discuss about what happened in this 120 years and why traditional Chinese interior gradually forgotten .
From the 1860s to the 1890s, Qing dynasty had experienced westernization movement (or called self-strengthen movement) led by Li Hong Zhang, Zuo Zong Tang and Zeng Guo Fan. In this movement both Zuo Guo Fan and Zuo Zong Tang strongly supported the study of western culture and industry, Zeng Guo Fan once said: “Learn to manufacture ships and guns, this is the foundation of China's self-improvement.” And Zuo Zong Tang has also said: “If we don’t learn the new things or knowledge every day, we just fall behind.”
When Li Hong Zhang first time traveled to America, he was aware of the gap between two countries, including in the architectural field, he has said: “I like everything in America, everything makes me happy. What surprises me the most are 20-story skyscrapers.” The effect of Westernization Movement in history is not only on economy but also greatly on contemporary ideological enlightenment in China. It can be considered as the first contact between Chinese and western culture.
After the Qing dynasty, time moved on The Republic of China (1912-1949). Because the western culture has been introduced into China after “westernization movement” and Qing empire has been overthrowing this time, in 1915, “The new culture movement” was initiated by Lu Xun, Hu Shi, who was western-educated people. This movement criticized classical Chinese ideas, like Lu Xun said:” “China invented gunpowder, but only used for fireworks.” And also, the movement promoted a new Chinese culture based upon western ideals like democracy and science.
During this period, culture exchanges have enriched the people’s mind and life. As we all know, interior design is closely related to life, so the interior design concept has also been changed in this age. With the trend of the new age, traditional Chinese interior design has been left, designers objected to traditional Chinese interior design, and they advocated to use western concept. So, in this era, interior design was mainly based on western culture, designers learnt from western space forms, decorations, structure and so on, until today, we still use western style interior design and furniture in daily life, even can say, western design style is still the mainstream of modern Chinese design. In the opposite, traditional interior design is gradually forgotten, not only young designers blindly advocating western design concept, but also Chinese young people don’t accept pretty, exquisite but trivial Chinese traditional design concept.
At this time, there are many experience and famous designers spoke up for Chinese design concept, as the father of modern Chinese architecture, Liang Si Cheng once said: “It is saddening to see a Chinese city completely loses its artistic character in architecture, because this fact clearly represents the decline of our culture.” Besides, the famous Chinese-American architect Bei yu Ming, he has said: “The top priority for Chinese designers is to respect our culture.” Because Mr. Bei is Chinese -American, he actually gets education both from china and western. In his perspective, he believes that different cultures have their own characteristics, so he gives an example ： “In western culture the window serves no more purpose than to allow light and fresh air into the structure, but to the Chinese, it is a picture frame of sorts, with the garden always positioned outside the window.”