the word design and its translations in china
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Kansei Engineering International Vol.5 No.3 pp.73-78 (2005)
ORIGINALARTICLES
THE WORD "DESIGN" AND ITS TRANSLATIONS IN CHINA
Zhou Yu
Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China, 361005
Abstract: The translation of the word "DESIGN", from the beginning of the 20th century. when it was first introduced to China fromWestern countries, up to now, has changed many times, including "Tu-an[•}ˆÄ](pattern)", "Gong-yi-mei-shu[•HŒ|”ü•p](arts and
crafts)", "Yi-shu-she ji[Œ|•p•ÝŒv](artistic design)", and "She ji-yi-shu[•ÝŒvŒ|•p]design art)". After analyzing and differentiating
the meanings of the original word and the translations, the author reveals that the underlying trend of the translations is to put more emphasis on the relationship between design and art, particularly their similarities and consistence, rather on the unique characteristics of design acquired from continuous evolution of the tradition. Those translations clearly reflect certain flaws of design research and education in China in the past. Considering the differences between design and art, the specialization of design study and its independence from art study are not enough; on the other hand, considering their similarities, the connection and cooperation b
etween design research and art research have not been fully explored. Designers and artists haven't carried out extensive cooperation in specialized fields. Key words: Design, Translations of design, Misunderstanding
1 .INTRODUCTION
The word "DESIGN" and its related concepts and
techniques, together with other Western culture, were
first introduced to China from abroad around the turn of
the last century. Until now, design has achieved a lot in
both theoretic research and industrial application in
China. However, the Chinese translation of "design" has
changed many times, mostly in the form of the four
fbllowing terms: Tu-an[ 図 案 ](pattern),
Gong-yi-mei-shu[工 芸 美 術](arts and crafts),
Yi-shu-she-ji [芸 術 設 計](artistic design), and
She-ji-yi-shu[設 計 芸 術](design art). These translations
reflect the inspiration resulting from the exchange
between Chinese and Western cultures, and the
understandings or sometimes misunderstandings of "design" by Chinese scholars
.
2.DISCUSSION OF THE WORD "DESIGN"
Before interpreting the meanings of the translations, I
will first discuss the original meaning of the word"design"in Western culture in order to understand the
differences between them. "Design"itself is an old word. its origin can be traced
to a Latin word from "Designare"to "designate",
which means signs or marks used to recognize or
differentiate people and objects. The contemporary
concept of "design" developed its meanings through
evolution of the tradition. Surprisingly, these meanings
spread so widely that Encyclopedia Britannica Online
has to ask us to "see industrial design; interior design.
See also advertising; architecture; typography; and other
subject areas in which design is fundamental." when
searching for the meaning of "design". [1] Leaving aside
its everyday usage, what we are taking about is as the
International Council of Societies of Design (ICSID)
defines: "Design concerns products, services and
systems conceived with tools, organizations and logic
introduced by industrialization, not just when produced
by serial processes." [2]
Traditionally, design is closely related to fine art and
handicrafts. Design mainly concerns composition of line,
color, and shape. "Because painting is a two-dimensional
art, the flat pattern of lines and shapes is an important
aspect of design, even for those painters concerned with
creating illusions of great depth." [3] In addition, design
is also about the creative thinking of the mind. Early
Western art was profoundly influenced by Platonism. It
is thought that the inspiration of art came from Idea.
Therefore, the creativity of artists was always associated
with the Creator, thing-in-itself or other mysterious
substances transcending the world. In the 17th century,
many Platonists, such as Giovan Pietro Bellori, Giovanni
Paolo Lomazzo, favored equaling design to "Idea".
Therefore, design was divided into intrinsic design and
extrinsic design reflecting the two meanings. Intrinsic
Received October 7, 2005
Accepted October 21, 200573
Kansei Engineering International 019
design is to pursuit idea; extrinsic meaning is to realize
ideas by using color, stones or other materials.
Driven by scientific development and industrial
revolution, the contemporary definition of design,
especially industrial design, gives up and, at the same
time, inherits some part of the traditional value of arts
and handicrafts. The process of giving up traditional
values is manifested as follows. First, manual manufacturing was replaced by machine manufacturing. As a result, elaborate handicrafts displayed different
characteristics than those of industrial products. The
former emphasizes originality and irreproducibility. In
contrast, modern design must practice functions, follow science and technology, consider cost, and serve the
masses. Secondly, idea precedes manufacturing. In
machine manufacturing, idea is generated first, and then
it is applied to production. However, in art creation, idea and producing are inseparable, and unpredictable
randomness with inspiration is even more valuable. Meanwhile, design inherits many characteristics of art.
First, design, similar to art, emphasizes creativity, as ICSID defines design as "a creative activity and the
central factor of innovative humanization of technologies
and the crucial factor of cultural and economic
exchange." [4] Furthermore, it defines designer as such: "The term designer refers to an individual who practices
an intellectual profession, and not simply a trade or a
service for enterprises." [5] Secondly, design, like art, also depends on materials to realize its ideas. Pure
creative thinking occurs in the period of planning, and cannot be called design unless it is materialized or
substantiated in manufacturing by materials just as
painting is achieved by canvas, music by notes, and
sculpture by stones.
In summary, design can be viewed as a unity of two
opposite factors reflecting its differences from and
similarities to art. In other words, design is a unity of functional manufacturing and aesthetic creation, and meanwhile a unity of ideas and materialization. In China,
many scholars had such discussions. Authors of artistic
design, Prof. Ling Jiyao and Xu Hengchun said: "Product design should follow this formula: design=
utility +convenience +beauty." [6] From this standpoint, design can be regarded as a unity of a series of opposites, including function and form, objective regularity and
subjective creativity, popularity and individuality of
products.
How to understand these opposing factors? As for the
principal relationship between function and beauty, first
of all, modern design is no longer a subject of art. Thus, logically, industrial manufacturing precedes aesthetic
creation. Functional requirements and technical limits
must be considered prior to aesthetic beauty and willful
creation. Accordingly, rational self-examination runs
through the whole process in design. A designer must
think over ideas repeatedly, attempt to prove their
feasibility. On the contrary, in art, self-introspection is
propelled by intuition, passion and inspiration. Additionally, an artist would never know what his
painting looks like before he draws out the last stroke.
However, a designer has already got a complete
structural form and achieved materialization to some
extent with the help of mould or computer before actual
manufacturing. Thus, one of the important characteristics
of design is its predictability.
Although individual categories in the field of design
attribute variable importance to these two opposite
factors discussed above, a state of balance is always
achieved. For instance, in industrial design and
mechanical design, designers usually pay more attention
to function and advanced technology than to decorative
beauty. While in clothing and textile design, designers easily fulfill their basic function of keeping people warm. Therefore, there is much more room and freedom for
aesthetic and artistic creation.
Secondly, no matter how important function or beauty
might be in different field, either factor is absolutely
necessary. That is to say, either one is dispensable in a
real design. Outstanding designers will do their best to
combine function with beauty harmoniously. Even the functionalism and modernism in the history of design
couldn't pay attention exclusively to function without
considering aesthetics.
Now let's look at the four translations of "design" in
China.
3. DISCUSSION AND COMPARISON OF FOUR
TRANSLATED TERMS FOR "DESIGN"
3.1 Tu-an[図 案](pattern)
The name of "Tu-an" is directly imported from
Japanese. Prof. Chen Zhifo, one of the first who
introduced Western design theory to China , once wrote:
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THE WORD "DESIGN" AND ITS TRANSLATIONS IN CHINA
"Tu-an was called design in English. It means planning
and artistic conception. The name of Tu-an was first
translated by Japanese, and became popular at home."
[7] At the end of the 19th century, to replace the
traditional manual way of manufacturing, Japan was
determined to learn from Western developed countries
the modern system of production, which depends on
scientific technology, assembly line production and
pre-manufacturing design. Correspondingly, the concept of Tu-an means completing a drawing before production.
On the contrary, craftsmen produce the same time when
they conceive ideas for their products. Chen Zhifo
thought Tu-an is a primitive form of product. That is to
say, one must thoroughly consider the composition of
shape, outline and color at first, and then draw it out on
the paper before producing any necessity of life.
Afterwards, Chen established a Tu-an design center in
Shanghai, compiling lots of textbooks and spreading
design ideas among the people.
In addition, another well-known scholar Yu Jianhua
also discussed about Tu-an. He said: "The term of Tu-an
appeared recently. However few people understood its
meanings and skills. Since our nation is to develop
modern industry and to improve the quality of products
to compete with West and Japan, it is essential to value
and study Tu-an. From arts and crafts to household
utensils, a composition sketch is definitely needed prior
to a finished product. Tu-an and handicraft should not be
separated." [8]
It is clear that the concept of Tu-an emphasizes that a
successful production should rely on complete planning, which has accelerated modern industry with high quality
and high output in Europe, America and Japan. However
in Chinese culture, Tu-an is mainly associated with art, especially two-dimensional art and handicrafts, such as decorative patterns on the surface in painting, embroidery and appliances. Contemporary Chinese
Language Dictionary defines Tu-an as decorative
patterns and figures with tidiness, orderliness and harmony, commonly used on fabric, handicrafts and
architecture. [9] However, the majority of industrial
design needs not only external design, but also inner
structure drawing that immediately influences function. Chen Zhifo focused on book layout, textile and single
pattern design in his career. Japan gradually gave up the use of Tu-an and replaced it with transliteration by
pronunciation. In China, Gong-yi-mei-shu began to
replace the use of Tu-an.
3.2 Gong-yi-mei-shu[工 芸 美 術](Arts and Crafts)
Prof. Cai Yuanpei, late President of Peking University, was the first to use the term of Gong-yi-mei-shu in 1920.
He classified the type of handicraft, namely
Gong-yi-mei-shu, into art. In his book, the origin of art, he wrote: " I define art in both a narrow and a broad
sense. Narrowly speaking, art refers particularly to
architecture, carving, and Gong-yi-mei-shu. William
Morris, a leading figure of Art and Crafts Movement
utterly detested the separation of fine art and handicrafts. So he advocated artistic labor, which also seems to be the case in China. We should do further research."
Morris tried to revive handicraft industry to remedy the
rough and monotonous quality of machine products, meanwhile to serve the labor class instead of noblemen
alone. His ideas and Gong-yi-mei-shu by Prof. Cai share
similar connotation. Other scholars, like Mr. Liu Lin,
thought Gong-yi-mei-shu was a kind of technology, by which daily necessities were artistically designed. Products from that technology are different from crudely
made handworks. Mr. Zhang Derong proposed that
Gong-yi-mei-shu was a new word in China, but not a new profession. It has a history of thousands of years. Gong-yi-mei-shu means applied art. That is to say,
whenever articles for daily life are artistically designed, it can be called Gong-yi-mei-shu. Gong-yi-mei-shu is
closely associated with people's everyday life.
Ideas above emphasize the important characteristics of
modern design, being that design has expanded from
traditional fine art to daily life, and practical use is
considered. However, these definitions still deviate from
the principles of modern design. First, Gong-yi-mei-shu
mainly deals with household utensils, while a large mount of industrial machines and electronic devices are
excluded. Secondly, Gong-yi-mei-shu overlooks the
change of production approach from handicraft to design. Mr. Zhang extended the history of design to thousands of
years, confusing the product of industry with that of art.
Inevitably, Gong-yi-mei-shu would meet with the same
fate as Morris had proved . Due to low efficiency but
high cost of manual production in workshops, only the noble class could afford Morris's design, which basically
went against his good will to serve the people. Thirdly, Gong-yi-mei-shu neglects the technological influence in
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design. In the early days of the 20th century, the majority
of daily necessities were furniture, clothing and kitchen
utensils. Science and technology used weren't as
complicated as that in heavy machines or precision
instruments. Naturally, Gong-yi-mei-shu pays more
attention to artistic elements. To conclude, the concept of
Gong-yi-mei-shu is only appropriate in a transitional
period toward modern design. Among all scholars of early 20th century, Chen Zhifo
held a broad view close to that of modern design. He
classified Gong-yi-mei-shu into traditional and modern
types. The former refers to art and crafts by hand, while
the latter concerns industrial products by machine. Thus,
he distinguishes modern design from handicrafts.
Moreover, he began to notice that design is all-around,
including the whole life style. He wrote: " Modern
Gong-yi-mei-shu embraces the whole life, ranging from
interior decoration, furniture, clothing, stage, to street
park, city environment, traffic vehicles, almost
everything." [10] Unfortunately, his creative idea did not
spread far and broadly. In reality, Chen never took part in
traffic vehicle design. So far, when it comes to
Gong-yi-mei-shu, people think of nothing but
handicrafts.
3.3 Yi-shu-she-ji[芸 術 設 計](artistic design)
Chen Zhifo thought that design could be transliterated
into She j i directly, and from then on She j i came out
with Tu-an simultaneously. Back to ancient ages,"She[設]"and"Ji[計]"were always used s
eparately.
"She" means planning, while "Ji" means draft or idea.
When "She" and "Ji" are combined to form a single
world, it regards design as a technical term. Nevertheless,
since the l990s, people used to add Yi-shu[芸 術] before
She j i, namely artistic design, the third translation for "design".
What kind of relationship exists between artistic
design and design? According to the list of college
specialties published by Ministry of Education in 1998,
under the major of art, there are two specialties
concerning design, artistic design and artistic design
study; within the major of mechanic engineering, there
are industrial design and mechanical design with
automation. Is artistic design, like industrial design and
mechanical design, just a branch of design? The
publisher's answer is no. As the list has indicated, artistic
design has three primary subjects, that is, art, literature
and engineering. Its relevant courses comprise sketch,
painting, composition training, expert techniques,
professional design and design theory etc., which indicates that artistic design is combination of art and
industry. As for artistic design study, its courses include
world arts and crafts history as well as design history. In
a way, artistic design isn't a branch of design, but is
equal to design itself.
Quite a few scholars hold similar viewpoints. Prof.
Chen Ruilin argued that the term of artistic design
replaced antiquated Gong-yi-mei-shu and ambiguous
She ji. It included environmental design, industrial
design, decorative design, clothing with textile design
and ceramic design and so on. [11] Clearly, he regarded
artistic design as design itself because various types of
design are included. Prof. Ling Jiyao and Xu Hengchun
definitely agreed with Chen's view: "Yi-shu-she ji,
namely artistic design, is the translation of design in
English. In modern industrial mass production, it
integrates usefulness in function, convenience in
operation with beauty in appearance organically and
harmoniously. " [ 12]
Why another word, "artistic", has to be put before
design, considering that artistic design refer to nothing
but design? Isn't it an unnecessary redundancy that
might result in somewhat misunderstanding? I believe
that the viewpoint regarding design as artistic design
attributes more importance of aesthetics and beauty to
design. As I have mentioned above, aesthetic element is
indispensable indeed, so is function. There wouldn't be a
real design if missing either of function or beauty.
Logically, function precedes beauty. This corresponds
to the order of human needs in Abraham. H. Maslow'
theory, in which the need for living precedes the need for
beauty. Yet in terms of importance, aesthetical quality
should not lag behind. However, a product cannot be
designed only for usefulness or beauty. Although it is
assumed that the importance of aesthetics can be
emphasized or strengthened by adding a word "artistic"
before "design", in my opinion, this only implies that
aesthetics actually does not holds the same status as
function.
3.4 She-ji-yi-shu[設 計 芸 術](design art)
She - ji-yi-shu or design art, appeared during the late
1990s. In the list of specialties for master and doctor's
degrees published in 1998, "design art study" is a
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THE WORD "DESIGN" AND ITS TRANSLATIONS IN CHINA
specialty in the art major. There lie two views on this
specialty. One thinks She-ji-yi-shu is a substitute for
Gong-yi-mei-shu. Prof. Li Yanzu said: "To replace
Gong-yi-mei-shu with She-ji-yi-shu, it isn't just a change
of words, but an emphasis on the essence of design art."
He considered design art isn't the entirety of handicrafts;
rather it especially refers to applied work. Li continued: "Applications in handicrafts belong to design art
, while
excluding the rest that is purely hand-made, individually
produced, and decorative only for display." [13]
Others consider design art as design itself. Shandong
Arts And Crafts College once compiled a series of
textbooks in 2002. One author wrote: "Modern design is
modern design art, also called as design art or design in
practice." Moreover, two terms are based on the same
theory: " Modern design art aesthetics should be
regarded as the same as technical aesthetics in theory. In
this textbook, we prefer to use design art aesthetics
instead of the other, merely because nowadays design is
becoming more vigorous and complicated all over the
world. The use of design art aesthetic appears
straightforward and avoids misleading readers in terms
of its concepts. For the same purpose, we use modern
design instead of industrial design." [14]
As I think, to merely reverse the order of design and
art, the meaning will go widely divergent. In
Yi-shu-she - ji, or artistic design, She-ji, namely design is
the subject, while Yi-shu as a modifier. This term
underlines the roles of beauty and aesthetic played in
industrial manufacturing. However, in She-ji-yi-shu,
Yi-shu, namely art, becomes the subject and She-ji is the
modifier. Therefore this term refers to a kind of art on
design. Undoubtedly, compared with artistic design, design art brings art closer to design because it regards
design as an art, which is inconsistent with the principles
of design. Truly speaking, design and art are so
inseparable that part of industrial product can be
appreciated as artworks. Nevertheless, they are still
different concepts. Modern design has several inherent
characteristics such as functionality, technological
requirement, mass consumption and group coordination
etc, which is contrary to art. Only under the
circumstances that an industrial product by design is
temporally stripped of its functionality, design could be
regarded as art. Obviously, by no means design is art by
nature.
4. CONCLUSIONS
From Tu-an to She -ji-yi-shu, I found that there is an
underlying trend of translations for design: Too much
emphasis was placed on the relationship between design
and art, particularly their association and similarities,
rather than on the unique characteristics of design
acquired from continuous evolution of tradition, especially in the concept of design art. These translations
clearly reflect certain flaws of design research and
education in China. First, as for the differences between
design and art, design theory hasn't developed
professional knowledge system independent from art theory. Secondly, as for their similarities, the connection
and cooperation between design study and art study have
not been fully explored; designers and artists haven't
carried out extensive cooperation in specialized fields.
There are many examples in the first aspect . Many
design education programs are originated from art
education system. For a long time, the curriculum and
faculty team are combined with those of art education .
Correspondingly, industrial design and product design, two important subjects of design research, are far from
developed. A few scholars have already realized this
problem. Prof. Chen Ruilin said: "Until the early 20 century, ideas and techniques in Chinese design
development had been founded upon the Renaissance, Arts and Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau Campaign
around the turn of the 20th century." [15] Until now, the entrance examination of design education of some
colleges still uses duplicates of the traditional art
education, such as sketch, painting, drawing, suggesting
the profound influence of art. Moreover, it is worth
nothing that such influence has not been truly applied to
design research. Without design products to learn from, Bauhaus founded three core courses of design education
by analyzing the principles and the elements of
traditional painting, which is an absolutely scientific and
objective study. Nevertheless, it is not enough to test
design ability by just duplicating drawing or painting
courses required by art education to design education.
In the second aspect, although design is viewed as
inseparable from art, it is hard for designers to enter the
field of art because of the specialization of art research
and the lack of interest on industrial design. A number of
designers desire to use traditional culture and aesthetics
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when designing products. For example, in the curriculum
of industrial design education in college, the major
courses are mechanics, electrical engineering, basic
mechanical design, industrial art, basic plastic design,
engineering material, human engineering, psychology,
computer-aided design, visual communication design,
environmental design, indicating little influence of art. In
theoretic research, a large amount of articles either solely
explain techniques or unnaturally force aesthetics,
sociology, and other humanities into design, which leads
to total discontinuity of theory and application.
In conclusion, it is necessary to differentiate the
meanings of translations of "design". In my opinion, the
word"She-ji[設 計]"is able to reflect the characteristics
of design, such as integrity, anticipation, and especially
creativity that is becoming increasingly important. In
addition, two separate words "She" and "Ji" are starting
to be used together as a single new word indeed, since
design was introduced to the nation. Therefore, the term
of She- ji should be popularized. At the same time, I
suggest referring to Western usage in case of any
confusion, adding clear restrictive words ahead like
industrial design, textile design, graphic design, and digital design etc. to define various categories.
NOTES
[1] See http//: www. britannica.com.
[2] See "definition of design", http//: www. icsid. org.
[3] See "Principals of design", http//: www. britannica.
com.
[4] See "definition of design", http//: www. icsid. org.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ling Jiyao, Xu Hengchun, Artistic Design, Shanghai
people press, Shanghai, 2000, p.9.
[7] Chen Zhifo, "methods of pattern composition",
Collected Works of Chen Zhifo, Jiangsu art press,
Nanjing, 1996, p.314.
[8] Yu Jianhua, "new method of pattern", as quoted by Li Yanzu, "Establishing China Design Art Research", Research on Design art, edited by Tsinghua university
art school Dept. of arts and crafts, 1st vol. Peking arts and
crafts press, Beijing, 1998, p.2.
[9] See Contemporary Chinese Language Dictionary, the Commercial press Ltd., Shanghai, 2001, p.1275.
[10] See note [7], p.161 & 309.
[11] Chen Ruilin, review on the development of Chinese artistic design during the early 20th century, Design Art Research, p.218.
[12] Ling Jiyao, Xu Hengchun, Artistic Design,
Shanghai people press, Shanghai, 2000, p.4.
[13] Li Yanzu, "Establishing China Design Art Research", Research on Design art, p. 5.
[14] Zhang Liguo, Aesthetics of Design Art, Shandong
education press, Jinan, 2002, p.4, 8.
[15] See note [11], p.238.
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