USTB AD Research of Visual Culture 03

University of Science and Technology Beijing

北京科技大学

视觉文化研究 / Research of Visual Culture周雯老师 / Professor Wen Zhou

作业3号 / Homework Nº3

A Look Into Chinese Visual Identity Inside Graphic Design Applied on Souvenirs

丽芳 / Lai Guim2012年11月27日

A look Into Chinese Visual Identity Inside Graphic Design Applied on Souvenirs

视觉文化研究 / Research of Visual Culture 作业3号 / Homework Nº 3 - Page 1

作业:

请在视觉文论与设计的大方向下选择自己感兴趣的主题,完成一篇不少于3000字的小论文。

HOMEWORK:

Please choose a topic of personal interest in the general direction of the visual theory research and design, to complete a small essay of not less than 3,000 words.



TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Introduction 2. Analized Subjects on Chinese Design of Souvenirs

2.1 Double Happiness

2.2 Pekin Opera

2.3 Shanghai Old Advertising

2.4 Cultural Revolution

2.5 2008 Olimpic Games

3. Conclusion



For over two years I lived in the city of Beijing, first as a student of Mandarin Chinese and now as a Masters Candidate in Artistic Design. During this time I had the unique opportunity to achieve a better understanding of Chinese culture through first-hand experience of daily life that exists in the nation’s capital. This closeness has allowed me to build a visual image about China’s cultural identity through the objects that designs and produces.

Touring the Chinese capital I have found that places of great tourist attraction, either for their historical value —such as The Forbidden City and The Temple of Heaven— or either cultural —such as the 798 Art District or Houhai area—, there is a transversal kind of trade which offers objects and items that have been designed primarily for the consumption of tourists, as souvenirs of the place you are visiting. The development of this specific trade is strategically located as part of the obligatory tour of these places of attraction in their access points or key points inside them. Therefore, it is unavoidable at least take a look at the articles that this type of commerce is offering.

The items this trade offers also match to be found in renowned markets in the city of Beijing, which are geared to foreign public and wholesalers, as The Silk Market, The Pearl Market or the Wangfujing area. These souvenirs usually are everyday objects or for decorative use, where the design emphasis it is focused on the aesthetic aspect, even above the functionality of the item. These objects that have been thought to represent some aspect of Chinese culture and have been mass produced through industrial design, in some cases combined with traditional craft techniques.

Facing such production scale, I find interesting to understand and reflect on the image of itself that China is spreading through these mass-produced objects, especially when it is considered that these items are in part aimed at a consumer/tourist who will travel from the capital to other provinces as well as from China to other countries around the world, thereby extending the scope of this visuality from local range to worldwide.

In the development of this paper the main interest is not in the objects themselves but on the specific motifs on which it bases its aesthetic appearance, understanding this set of subjects as part of an image that represents the culture that created them. Thus, the aim of this essay is to introduce a personal and reflective view at the visual identity that China is transmitting of its culture through the design of this specific type of objects.

1. Introduction



2. Analized Subjects on Chinese Design of Souvenirs

2.1 Double Happiness

One of the most characteristic aspects of visuality is undoubtedly Chinese character-based writing. The Chinese consider calligraphy in a dual role: first in its practicality as a language and secondly as an object of beauty in the aesthetic sense.(1) The Chinese writing system results complex to the eyes of the West, its structure based on strokes go beyond than merely formal sense, and speaks from symbols associated to each stroke, thereby extending its conceptual complexity.

One of the characters by which Chinese culture feels special attraction is representing the Double Happiness. Two characters for happiness —Xi— are joined to express the joy of wedded union. Good things come in pairs. Chinese culture favors equilibrium: yin is balanced by yang, the dark by the light. Symmetry is an underlying principle, not only in art and arquitecture, but also in all realms of design, terrestrial or celestial.(2)

Xi by itself means joy. It’s perfectly balanced and symmetrical by itself, but when you double it, shuang, the carácter becomes even more solid.(3)

The original meaning of the double happiness character goes back to the Sung dynasty. At the beggining of his career, the famous statesman Wang Anshi sat for the grueling imperial examinations. On his wedding day, just as he was about to marry a beautiful woman from a noble imperial family, he was told that he not just passed the examination but also earned the highest score. He was so happy that he wrote the character for happiness twice and joined them together—to express his double joy.(4)

Nowadays, Chinese use this character made in papercut technique, which is a very popular folk art. Double Happiness has been the focus of papercut works on all weddings in cities and villages, North and South China.(5) The favorite color paper is red, the traditional color for brides. In China red stands for joy, passion, justice, triumph, and righteousness.(6) It also represents achievement, wisdom, virtue and fortune. But above all, it is the color of good luck.(7) Thus, the concept of wellness continues to multiply at a symbolic level through the use of color. For all Chinese weddings, double happiness is a logo.(8)

(1) SHI, Zhongwen; CHEN, Qiaosheng. (2011). “Cultura China” (Chinese Culture). China Intercontinental Press. p.176. ISBN 978-7-5085-2044-5(2) TAM, Vivienne. (2000). “China Chic: a visual memoir of Chinese style and culture”. ReganBooks. p. 26. (3) TAM, Vivienne. (2000). p. 34.(4) TAM, Vivienne. (2000). p. 34. (5) POPCORN. (2008). “Essentially Chinese: Chinese Stuff”. China Intercontinental Press. p. 163.(6) TAM, Vivienne. (2000). p. 34. (7) BLEICHER, Steven. (2012). “Contemporary Color: Theory & Use”. Delmar. p. 193. ISBN: 978-1-111-53891-0(8) POPCORN. (2008). p. 163.



2.2 Pekin Opera

The Pekin Opera is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in the late 18th century and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century. The form was extremely popular in the Qing Dynasty court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China.(9)

It is believed that Beijing Opera was born in 1790 with a representation that a theater group gave to the Emperor Qian Long to celebrate his eightieth birthday. Originally, the opera is represented only in the imperial court and became a public spectacle until later.(10) At the end of the Qing Dynasty had gained an extensive audience that included royal members and nobles, politicians and ordinary people, each of them representing different layers of a society that could differ among themselves about principles and philosophical concepts, but still shared taste for this type of performances.(11)

Peking-opera performers utilize four main skills. The first two are song and speech. The third is dance-acting. This includes pure dance, pantomime, and all other types of dance. The final skill is combat, which includes both acrobatics and fighting with all manner of weaponry. All of these skills are expected to be performed effortlessly, in keeping with the spirit of the art form.(12)

In the aesthetic, one of the most relevant features into this kind of artistic expression is the use of makeup on the characters from the opera, giving it a strongly ideographic. Different makeups indicate different personalities. For example Zhang Fei wears a smile, as his character is frank and funny, while Xiang Yu exhibits traces of tears, expressing his sadness of being defeated by others.(13 )

The use of bright primary colors and a detailed use of drawing to highlight different moods confers to The Peking Opera a special visuality, extremely attractive and with a strong graphic sense, synthetic and expressive at the same time. The high acceptance Peking Opera received from its origins within Chinese society has not stopped expanding, reaching today a global scale from its visual identity.

(9) SHI, Zhongwen; CHEN, Qiaosheng. (2011). “Cultura China” (Chinese Culture). China Intercontinental Press. p.176. ISBN 978-7-5085-2044-5(9) Wikipedia contributors. “Peking Opera”. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_opera (Accessed November 16, 2012).(10) Wikipedia contributors. “Peking Opera”. (11) SHI, Zhongwen; CHEN, Qiaosheng. (2011). p.181. (12) Wikipedia contributors. “Peking Opera”.(13) SHI, Zhongwen; CHEN, Qiaosheng. (2011). p.182.




2.3 Shanghai Old Advertisement

These posters symbolized a romantic time when Shanghai was the Paris of the East. Shanghai started out as a small harbor town, but after the end of the Opium War in the mid-nineteenth century, the Western powers moved in, and the city became the most Westernized in China. By the twenties and thirties, there were great banks and office buildings hugging the harbor promenade, known as the Bund. Grand international hotels, nightclubs, and department stores lined the great Nanjing Road shopping district. Shanghai was the business and cultural center where East met West, and it’s here that you can find the begginnings of both high finance and Chinese pop culture—including a dynamic movie, recording and fashion industry.(14)

The posters were an idealized, exotic take on a Chinese modern metropolis, but they show how the cheongsam fits into its original time, and how woman wanted to see themselves with a combination of permed hair and Chinese-style makeup.(15)

For the first time, people were free to pursue the best of East and West, and that meant combining rich layers of Qing palace style with the most streamlined shapes of European and American designs.(16)

(14) TAM, Vivienne. (2000). p. 12.(15) TAM, Vivienne. (2000). p. 12.(16) TAM, Vivienne. (2000). p. 15.





(17) TAM, Vivienne. (2000). p. 81.(18) VAN ELZEN, Sus. (2000). “Dragon & Rose Garden - Art and Power in China”. Modern Chinese Art Foundation. pp. 33-34. ISBN: 978-908-14503-0-0.(19) TAM, Vivienne. (2000). p. 85.(20) VAN ELZEN, Sus. (2000). p. 86.(21) TAM, Vivienne. (2000). pp. 85-88.(22) POPCORN. (2008). p. 154.

“The Cultural Revolution lasted a decade and disrupted an entire country, leaving a scar that is still healing.” This sentence written by the fashion designer Vivienne Tam in her book China Chic(17) express with great accuracy the general feeling I perceive from Chinese people towards the Cultural Revolution period, from 1966 to 1976, ending officially with the death of Mao Zedong. This subject it is extremaly complex and it is not an purpose of this essay to dig deep into political implications. However, it is evident that the specific visuality generated during this period remains a graphic reference highly relevant concerning in the construction of Chinese identity. From this point of view, it is interesting to know the origins of this visuality and review current applications of this specific aesthetic within the industrial production of objects of mass consumption.

The image Chairman Mao Zedong is without doubt the greatest symbol of the Cultural Revolution. The portrait of Chairman Mao Zedong was hung below the balcony at Tiannanmen in February 1949, where it has ostensibly remanied to this day. The fact that Mao ordered his portrait to be hung there was nothing new. The portrait of Sun Yat-sen had hung there in 1929 and that of Chiang Kai-shek in 1945. Mao with this gesture followed to tradition.(18)

During the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s face hung in every living room, classroom, and office. People showed their royalty by wearing his face on a budge. They thought of all sorts of ways to honor the Chairman, drawing his face on mirrors or weaving it into wall hangings.(19)

Although the cult of Mao was the heart of the Cultural Revolution, the performing arts during this period were largely dictated by Chairman’s wife, Jiang Qing. The themes revolved around the victories of the Cultural Revolution, the heroic acts of workers, peasants and soldiers, and successes in industry and agriculture. The glorification of agricultural workers is widespread in the posters of the period. The smiling worker-heroes are often woman, performing jobs traditionally associated with man.(20)




(23) VAN ELZEN, Sus. (2000). p. 87.(24) Wikipedia contributors. “Propaganda in the People’s Republic of China”. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China (Accessed November 17, 2012).

In the early nineties, the power of Mao’s face made a comeback in China as people began to use his image as a good-luck charm.(21) The image of Chairman Mao is equally popular among chinese people as well. Nowadays, many drivers prefer an amulet with Chairman Mao or Premier Zhou Enlai’s portrait to protect them. To certain degree, the two founders od New China have been idolized as gods. Without a religious belief, many Chinese have found psycological support from the images of national leaders.(22)

For several decades the Chinese have seen the passing of trends in Chinese art that worked with and on material from the Cultural Revolution, the iconography of Mao Zedong and his outfit.(23)

Today, Maoist era propaganda are no longer used by the CCP, and are largely commercialized for the purposes of nostalgia.(24)






The 2008 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to 24, 2008.(25) Beijing was officially notified by the International Olympic Committee to be the city for this version on 2001,(26) and China prepared itself in every aspect of being an olimpic host.

In the graphic design, the emblem draws on various elements of Chinese culture, depicting a traditional red Chinese seal above the words “Beijing 2008” and the Olympic rings. The seal is inscribed with a stylised calligraphic rendition of the Chinese character 京 —jing, meaning “capital”, from the name of the host city— in the form of a dancing figure. The curves are also claimed to suggest the body of a wriggling Chinese dragon. The open arms of the figure symbolise the invitation of China to the world to share in its culture. The figure also resembles that of a runner crossing the finish line. Red, the dominant colour of the emblem, is an important colour in Chinese society, often signifying good luck.(27) Other entries included dozens of Great Walls, pandas and dragons,(28) but the choosen one was a design with special emphasis in the city of Beijing.

For the city itself, this is an opportunity for improvement that has to be grabbed, chiefly for the improvement of infrastructure. The metro is being expanded, the fight against air pollution is being taken up and so on. (29) By May 2007 the construction of all 31 Beijing-based Olympic Games venues had begun. The Chinese government renovated and constructed six venues outside Beijing as well as 59 training centres.(30)

(25) Wikipedia contributors. “2008 Summer Olympics”. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http:// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics (Accessed November 17, 2012).(26) Wikipedia contributors. “2008 Summer Olympics”.(27) Wikipedia contributors. “Dancing Beijing”. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_Beijing (Accessed November 17, 2012).(28) Wikipedia contributors. “Dancing Beijing”.(29) VAN ELZEN, Sus. (2000). p. 163.(30) Wikipedia contributors. “2008 Summer Olympics”.





(31) Wikipedia contributors. “Beijing National Aquatics Center”. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing_National_Aquatics_Center (Accessed November 17, 2012).(32) VAN ELZEN, Sus. (2000). p. 66.

The Olimpic Village was built in the nort part of Beijing and contains the two most important olimpic buildings: The Beijing National Stadium, —nicknamed “The Bird’s Nest” because of its nest-like skeletal structure— and the The Beijing National Aquatics Center, also officially known as the National Aquatics Center, —colloquially known as the “Water Cube”—.(31)

The location of the Olimpic Village was selected considering several aspects, but one of the most interesting ones it that integrates this new architecture in the north-south axis which emphasises the orientation of the city. This axis is from the southern part of Beijing starting with the Temple of Heaven, going north to the Tiannanmen Square and the Forbidden City, and continues north, passing the Drum and Bell Towers to finally reach the Olimpic Village.(32) This express a clear intention to integrate the new architectonical symbols inside Beijing giving them a place equally relevant compared to the traditional historical constructions already worldwide known as icons of Chinese culture.




China’s Visual Identity within Graphic Design applied in the production of souvenirs is a subject for which I have a special interest. It is a visual message that China is projecting abroad. The visual identity of this country is certainly is as broad as its history and geography, integrating many more subjects than those presented in this paper. At the moment to prepare this little research based on only five representative themes of Chinese culture, the first conclusion is that it is very difficult to define a precise boundary to define the visual identity of this country. This essay does not mention the architectural heritage, with examples of world famous as The Great Wall, or China understood as the original land of the pandas, neither any specific type of folk art within the broad range developed in the framework of its exquisite cultural diversity.

The second conclusion is that the weight of the visual tradition of Chinese culture plays a major role, evident within the mass production of souvenirs. The Case of the Double Happiness character represents the weight of popular culture, expressed from one of the essences of Chinese culture, which is its ideographic language. Something similar in a more a specific scale is valid also for the Peking Opera, which was popular from its begining for several reasons, one of them its ideographic character marking, which has become as representative of Chinese cultural identity until today. The weight in the case of the Cultural Revolution is also undeniable, and from my limited perspective works in a different way: it is tangent to the current culture, but it is facing from different points of view within Chinese society. As a foreigner, it is difficult to understand these differences, and deduct then require a complete and deeper new study. For now, I understand that there must be a great representation of Chinese culture with the figure of Chairman Mao Zedong, as he is the main image on the paper money from all around the country, and on the other hand, his portrait is still displayed on the Forbidden City, as part of its facade.

The third conclusion is that, at the very same time, I perceive a tendency to renew the selection of motifs developed into mass design souvenirs in China. From my point of view, this development aims to integrate new themes as part of the national cultural identity: from the five ones presented here this can be seen in old advertising produced in the city of Shanghai in the early twentieth century, where the aesthetics from the West was introduced inside the local visuality, creating a particular style marked with strong Chinese qualities, by combine the aesthetics of the Art Deco of the 20’s in Europe with traditional Chinese qipao, for instance. The other case of renewal is the phenomenon that occurred with the 2008 Olympics, where the new buildings created for this event, into what is now known as the Olympic Village, were created with a the intention of integrating the new within the symbolism of existing historic urban context of the city Beijing. The very same logo to represent the Olympics in this version rejected topics as the Great Wall or the Pandas to base its design, gesture that I understand as an evident need to renew and refresh the identity that China is transmitting to the rest of the world.

3. Conclusion

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USTB AD Research of Visual Culture 03