the wrong: imprisoned by our own long history
5 years ago, i was throwing around an idea of building a chinese fashion house. all the feedbacks from china were 1) copy, copy, copy, 2) make it look like a western brand, and 3) give it a european name. no one said anything about the actual customers. no one said anything about an original vision. and, no one said anything about a long-term strategy. 5 years later, i am still getting the same answers. and no, i am not taking those “advices”.
i suspect our proud 5000 years of chinese culture and history are not doing us any good regarding designs. at this point in time, not only should we break from the western ideals in aesthetic, but also our own past history. if design is about exploration and navigation of our contemporary life, then we should be looking for new frontier of the modern lives, not the remains of our cultural ruins. please forget about all those dragon motifs visually. please let go of all those emperors and dynasties conceptually. please stop using all these ancient similes conversationally. and please: do not be imprisoned by our own past.
when i went to 798 for the first time a few years back, i saw lots of artworks dealing in the rein of politics. the americans ate that stuff up, but as a chinese citizen, i found that too far removed from everyday lives and the general reality of the here and the now. in other words – boring! then there were those artworks with which their main idea is to update the past to the future: pop art ink drawings, the ceramic coca cola cans, the modern installation using ancient furniture from the forbidden city, etc. these were all good gimmicks… for about 5 minutes – boring! and let’s not even mention the “east meets west” rubbish; that stuff lays so deep inside the mind-prison that i am not even going to comment on that – boring!
however, i came across some artworks that excited me. those were free of our historical baggages as a people. the artists just deal with the everyday lives without referring to the past. the artworks are all witnesses of the modern history of the rise of china. i invite you to check out the brilliant minds of yue minjum, zhang huan, and ju ming.
i am not saying we should develop our own form of internet from the ground up. a good thing is a good thing. but if we are going to copy, we should copy the thought process, not the end products. i don’t want your fish; i want to learn how to fish. don’t just hire all the international celebrity designers and architects to work on our projects; we should mix in our own creative talents to learn, to adopt and to find our own paths. not to be limited by our 5000 years of experiences, to be a trailblazer is to have one’s own beliefs, own value, and own strategy.
(first published in the aug. 2010 issue of his life magazine)
传统文化越狱
5年前，我曾提出想要创建一个中国设计品牌的想法，从国内得到的反馈无非是：穷其一切地照抄；包装成西方品牌；干脆取个欧洲范儿的名字。没人提到真正的消费者和他们的需求，以及任何与原创视觉和原创概念相关的东西，也没人关心品牌的发展潜力和长远规划。5年后我依然得到近乎相同的答案。
我怀疑，在设计领域，让我们引以自豪的五千年中华文明史并没带来什么优势。谈到设计，我们不仅要超越西方审美意识的控制，而且要努力挣脱自己历史的束缚。如果设计是关于生活的探寻和引导，那么我们就应该寻找现代生活的新坐标，而不是在旧有文化的遗骸中流连忘返。在视觉上反复折腾“龙”的主题，概念上过度消费“皇帝”的故事，在谈话中又爱死了古老陈旧的比喻，这不是被囚禁还能是什么？
几年前的北京798，许多艺术作品都在拿中国传统文化的主题做文章。美国人可能还会照单全收，但是中国人都心知肚明：这些作品多么脱离我们的日常生活。换句话说：无聊！同时，也有将传统“升级”到现代的作品：流行艺术风格的水墨画，陶瓷的可乐罐，用故宫古老家具风格装饰的现代陈设等等。初看起来，这些小花招让你眼前一亮，但只消5分钟，也同样露出无聊的马脚。更不用说那些所谓“东方遇到西方”的无聊创意，它们更是被深深困在我刚才提到的文化思维的监狱中，我甚至不愿意费笔墨去评论它们——无聊透顶！
也有一些令人激动的作品，它们卸下了传统包袱，具有真正的人文关怀，简单的关注着普通人们真正的，当下的日常生活。岳敏君，张洹和朱铭，他们都拥有着真正的天才创意。如果我们要复制，也要复制思维过程，而非最后成品。请来国际大牌设计师和建筑师就万事大吉的时代终将走上不归路，融入我们自己的设计师和创意才是明智之举。成为一个拓荒者就是要有属于自己的信仰、价值观和技巧。
(第一次发表: 2010年8月 他的生活杂志. 翻译: grace chen)
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