Material Dreams: Tracing the history of everyday industrial design in twentieth-century China

What was industrial design in twentieth-century China? How can we write its history, and what kind of sources might we consult? Little historiography in Chinese or English has explored the trajectories and role of industrial design in modern China. And yet, throughout the century, people in China designed, made, and consumed things, with industrial processes, mass manufacturing techniques, and new - often synthetic - materials playing an increasingly pivotal role. As China industrialised and modernised, plenty of chairs, beds, tables, cupboards, light fixtures, crockery, and other items were needed to fill new housing complexes, government offices, workers and youth palaces, schools, and other public buildings. This talk examines two case studies: the domestic history of modern furniture design and the international history of Chinese product design for foreign trade. It explores how we can search for, find, and make sense of objects, their makers, and their stories. Far from a marginal history, industrial design provides new insights into the historical development of one of the world's largest manufacturers of light industry products today.