| Author: | Wen, Qi |
| Title: | Design museums in a “City of Design” in China |
| Advisors: | Ng, Sandy (SD) Bruyns, Gerhard (SD) |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Subject: | Museums -- China Museum architecture -- China Museums -- Social aspects -- China Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Design |
| Pages: | 245 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The thesis examines the cultural phenomenon of the flourishing of design museums in China. The research focuses on the evolvement of the concepts of “design” and “museum” in China since the mid-19th century and the process of design musealization in China after the Reform and Opening-up policy. The thesis adopts a sociological methodology to study the cultural phenomenon with an interpretive and historical worldview and employs qualitative methods—including observations, field trips, and interviews—to examine three design museums in Shenzhen as case studies. The thesis comprises eight chapters, including introductory and closing chapters. It first examines the Design Museum in London, which was the first design museum in the city, with respect to its origins in the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations and the Victoria and Albert Museum, and its role as an instrument for shaping a consumer society in Britain. After delving into the history of design museums, the thesis defines the design museum and analyzes consumer capitalism in the 19th and 20th centuries, when design became cultural capital for driving economic growth, and museums were formed as a cultural disseminator and a tool of civil control in regulating the public. As “design” and “museum” were foreign imports, the thesis then reviews how design and museums have developed in China to contextualize the advent of Chinese design museums and the background of modernization in postsocialist China. The expansion and diversification of museums have become a global phenomenon (Fyfe, 2006), and design museums are a specialized genre of museums that evolved from craft and decorative art museums and have flourished worldwide since 1989. With a special focus on the design museums in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, the thesis discusses the roles and functions of these design museums in the cultural and urban context of Shenzhen, which has embarked on cultural development and renovation since 2003. Shenzhen was one of the first Special Economic Zones set up in 1980, when the Reform and Opening-up Policy was inaugurated. The city rose from a socialist experiment of market reform to a model city, and played a leading role in the economy, science, and technology of China. It is also a designated model city and the socialist demonstration city in China. In 2008, it was designated the “City of Design” by UNESCO. Since then, design has been promoted in Shenzhen, with the city designated as a cultural capital to establish an urban cultural characteristic, and numerous design activities (such as design biennales, design weeks, and design competitions) have been organized, and design-related cultural institutions established by the municipal government and local companies. Museums are often instrumentalized in the international campaign of metropolises (Kirchberg, 2015). In the twenty-first century, the Shenzhen government initiated a cultural strategy to establish the city renowned for its culture, and some cultural policies and plans have been promulgated to support cultural development. Being an international and civilized city has become the government’s agenda, and many design museums and related branded exhibitions and programs have flourished in the period to fulfill the ambition of building a cultural Shenzhen. In this period, the intervention of private entities and the shift of government roles has led to changes in the cultural landscape in the city. This thesis examines the functions and roles of these design museums in the postsocialist era and questions whether the new genre of museums has different functions and roles and whether they have brought insights into design and museum theories and practices. The thesis contributes to disclosing the reasons for establishing design museums and what roles they play in a socialist state in a reformed period by scrutinizing three cases: the Shenzhen Museum of Industry (1985), the OCT Art and Design Gallery (2008), and the Design Society (2017). The establishment of these design-oriented cultural organizations reveals the cultural positioning and strategic shift and demonstrates the cultural ambition of the city. Except for the Shenzhen Museum of Industry, the other two cases are institutions founded by renowned state-owned enterprises. They were established in different periods and reveal a shift in the museum industry where the government plays a lesser role in cultural undertakings and private sectors intervene in the transformation and commercialization of cultural organizations. The museums serve as cultural infrastructures to fulfill the cultural development of the city and the ambition of the museums’ founders to upgrade their commerce. Their functions and roles hereby changed and diversified in line with policy trends and the needs of their founders. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
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