China Design at the Victoria & Albert Museum

“‘Made in China’ has become a familiar tag, but the spectacular creative energy in modern China is barely known,” note the curators of the V&A’s “China Design Now,” running at the London museum from March 15 to July 13. China is often in the news lately, because of the upcoming Beijing Olympics, tensions with Tibet and the devastating earthquake it experienced in May. This exhibit offers a look at another China, one of modern artistic expression that mingles Eastern and Western ideas.

For many Westerners, thinking about China conjures up an image of the factories that produce most of the objects we use in everyday life—toys, utensils, clothing. Last year, bestselling author Jonathan Franzen decided to explore the truth behind the image. Franzen wanted to know about the process in which his golf club cover, a stuffed puffin, was “made in China.” When he met with toy factory workers and owners in China, he was confronted again and again with references to the United States as “tired and old,” dependent as it is on the manufactured goods of other countries such as China. Listen to an audio interview about his journey.

China uses design to connect with other cultures in ways that are provocative and beautiful. Even mired as it is by politics, the Beijing Olympics provide an opportunity for the world to observe what China has been building, and thus, to witness the country asserting its individuality. Browse the Beijing section of the V&A exhibition site for artists’ renditions of the buildings being erected in time for the Olympics.

The PDF-format “Chronology” from the V&A exhibit provides a year-by-year overview of political, economic and cultural milestones. The 1980s marked a cultural renaissance for China, with the founding of such art movements as Ambiguous Poetry and the dissemination of New Wave principles in the country.

If Beijing is about function, Shanghai, “the Paris of the Orient” is about romance. The setting of Wong Kar-Wai’s “In the Mood for Love” and a hub of interior and fashion design, Shanghai is a haven for artistic types who are “striving to balance commercial pressures with a unique creative vision.”

Design in China thrives on connectivity and collaboration. Groups like the Alternative Archives and the China-U.S. Center for Sustainable Development cross borders with global exhibitions. Alternative Archives is an online and offline haven for film, art, design and music. It creates and promotes exhibits that are shown all over the world, and offers digital materials to the public on their Web site. Browse the “News” section of the site to see the group’s projects.

China is transforming its skylines in eye-catching ways, enhancing its image both within the country and to international visitors. World Architects, a database of architecture firms, designers and their projects, provides a list of some of the top firms in China. These firms work on residences, public buildings, office buildings, college campus buildings and more. Many of these, like the Amateur Architecture Studio emphasize youth and energy, and a blending of old with new. Behind some very untraditional structures are often very traditional principles. Amateur Architecture Studio’s goal is “to design a house instead of a building.” That “house” might actually be a café and gallery space, but at its foundation is something familiar, safe, and “thoughtful.”