Chinese traditional culture and modern design

Abstract: The Chinese culture is long-standing and profound. The factors that constitute beauty in these cultures are the national treasures of the Chinese nation. No matter how the development of modern design can not be separated from the profound impact of traditional culture on it, these national, regional, social and historic traditional culture, affecting the modern design movement all the time. Designers should inherit and develop the essence of these traditional cultures.

Keywords: traditional culture modern design folk aesthetics

Since its entry into the line of design, it has always been "the more the nation is, the more it is in the world." This sentence has deep feelings. The Chinese nation has a history of more than 5,000 years of development and has formed a multi-ethnic national family. In this big family, 56 ethnic groups are symbiotic and co-prosperity, which together create the most beautiful glory in human history. The beauty of our nation is unique to our country, but the United States has no borders, so the beauty of our nation is also the beauty of the world. The addition of elements of Chinese traditional culture to the design not only fully expresses our mysterious oriental colors, but also can better play the role of international communication and communication. In today's world, culture can only survive in the same vein and has never been interrupted. It has also only been through Chinese culture for more than 5,000 years. Based on this, the Chinese people have a soft spot for traditional culture and folk aesthetics.

Under broad and profound Chinese culture, we should all regard the inheritance and development of Chinese culture as our responsibility and glory. The traditional essence of Chinese culture embodied in this cultural system influences us subtly from ideas to behavior. Therefore, in the design, if we can integrate these cultures that we are proud of, this is what kind of national pride! Now quoted the well-known folk artist Mr. Zhang Zaiyi's interpretation of tradition, he believes: "'Biography' is spread and spread, 'unification' is a system that inherits the same strain."

Generally speaking, it means that a country or a nation has its history, morality, human relations, style, art, and system inherited from history. It is mainly expressed in terms of culture. Some scholars define culture as: "The sum of material wealth and spiritual wealth created in the historical practice of human society. It is a creative activity that humans perform in order to meet their own needs in a certain way." What is beauty? First, labor creates the United States and the United States arises from the labor-centered multi-faceted practice of life and production. Different kinds of things of different nature, the scenes of different situations are coordinated and harmonious as a whole, which produces beauty, that is, the beauty of happiness and harmony. The aesthetic thought of "harmony" advocated by Confucius has far-reaching influence on later generations. Many artists' aesthetic ideals and aesthetic tastes are based on this "harmony". The five tastes are palatable, the five colors are pleasing to the eye, and the six laws are fast ears, and the heaven and earth people are self-satisfied and entertaining, all for the creation of beauty. In addition to the theoretical form of aesthetics, a large number of craft products created by the ancient working people also reflected rich aesthetic ideas and high artistic attainments. From the advanced skills of the ancestors' skilled craftsmen, they still showed their artistic ideas. As Marx said, "They were created according to the laws of beauty.

Secondly, compared with the beauty of Western culture, the feature that Western culture began to highlight from Plato is “being individual as the beauty”, emphasizing visuality, vividness and novelty. The starting point of Chinese aesthetics began with Laozi aesthetics. Traditional aesthetics emphasizes the unity of the United States - the "whole consciousness," and believes that everything is a harmonious and unified whole and follows the same essential laws. Therefore, the ancient Chinese artists have always been committed to the creation of "as a whole". The form of human emotions is given to things, borrows things and expresses feelings, “makes use of shapes and expresses impressions,” and “has a combination of form and spirit.” Because of this kind of “integration of nature and humanity” and the aesthetic concept of “me and me”, Chinese artistic expression The form does not emphasize "realism" but emphasizes "transmission". It emphasizes the performance of the overall model, rather than the complete depiction of objective objects. This is very different from the aesthetics of the West.

The ancient Chinese aesthetic demands “introverted”, which is the so-called subtle beauty. In the western aesthetics, it is aestheticism and fragmentary thinking. Thirdly, the aesthetic pursuit in traditional aesthetics subconsciously influences modern design ideas, which in turn affect the aesthetic concept of the nation. In our view of the Chinese nation, beauty is not something else, nor is it something mysterious and incommensurable. Beauty is a kind of harmony that makes people happy. The so-called "non-harmonious beauty". As Zhuangzi said: "With people and people, that is the joy of people; with heaven and the people, that is the music of heaven." Therefore, it can be said that beauty and harmony, that is, the beauty of happiness. Anyone has the mentality of pursuing good things, but each person's appreciation ability and level are different. After all, this is related to each person's culture, education, preference, and many other factors, but the United States - The true beauty is pleasing to the public.

Let us look again at the multiplicity of traditional ethnic cultural values. The first is originality. The aesthetic culture must be a culture that embodies a certain aesthetic consciousness and can give people a sense of beauty. From this point of view, we will find poetry, music, dance and other arts and human decoration, rhythm, and harmony. The United States comes from the people and is created by the people of all ethnic groups. Chinese famous poets, painters, dramatists, calligraphers, etc. left behind in the poetic theory, painting theory, theatrical theory, calligraphy theory, music theory, also contains a wealth of aesthetic ideas, usually in the aesthetics of the boutique . Designers should fully learn these valuable knowledge. The second is hidden, traditional aesthetics live in the folk, the new aesthetics was born in the folk, so the treasure of the national folk aesthetics is particularly rich in reserves. Therefore, the designer's design source is inexhaustible. Art needs innovation, and art itself has continuity. However, this kind of innovation does not blindly negate the former culture. This kind of negation should be affirmative and negated, and it must be discarded. The ancients said it was good and took its essence to its dregs. This guides us to design excellent works with excellent folk culture.

In today’s information age, modern art and modern technology have had a profound influence on modern design. However, no matter how it develops, it cannot deviate from the profound influence traditional culture and folk aesthetics have on it. In other words, a traditional, national, regional, social and historic culture not only affects the modern art movement all the time, but also directly affects the modern design movement. In the field of art and design, Chinese culture has also exerted tremendous influence on the world. The Bauhaus, the peak of modernist design development, was deeply influenced by Chinese traditional culture. As early as the 1920s, Bauhaus had a keen interest in the theory of China's old and new, but also applied the philosophy of Lao-tzu to teaching and design practice. There is a character who has had a significant influence in the history of Bauhaus. He is the Swiss painter Johannes Itten. He studied oriental philosophy, especially the philosophical thoughts of Laozi and Zhuangzi in China. He also taught students to learn the spiritual interest of ancient art from the oriental and medieval arts, and even let students practice Qigong. Chinese culture not only stays on the surface of works of art, but in some respects it has become the soul of works of art. Many of the world's best clothing brands can, in some of their designs, see the shadow of some Chinese culture more or less. Sometimes, when you see yellow hair in the streets and blue-eyed foreign friends wearing our Tang suits, you can't help but marvel at the different charms. You can't help but feel that this beautiful fruit is truly national. Therefore, the great charm of traditional folk culture and its extensiveness should be inherited, developed and spread by us.

For thousands of years, a large number of philosophers, estheticians, and artists have continued to explore in this field, thus forming a unique and profound Chinese aesthetic system. The essence of the traditional culture embodied in this system has been affecting, constraining, and regulating our aesthetic concept. This aesthetic concept is determined by a series of factors including the lifestyle, customs, system, ethics, and aesthetic habits of the nation. . Therefore, to successfully use the factors of ethnic and folk Sino-American, first of all, designers are required to deeply love this nation, understand this nation, and be familiar with this nation. In this way, we can bring us rich aesthetic thoughts, diversified traditional cultures and further understanding of the laws of craftsmanship, design, and beauty, and enable us to extract many useful materials and new inspirations from them.

The folk-aesthetic ideology is often not embodied in a strict theoretical form, but is embodied in an intuitive sentiment or an aesthetic culture. Design is also a perceptual expression. It requires the accumulation of experience and the inspiration. When you really love this people and really appreciate this folk aesthetic, it can often give you an unexpected feeling. This sentiment will enable designers to inspire more thought sparks in practical work and push design research to a new level. From the perspective of the development of our national culture, we must be brave enough to absorb, criticize, and inherit our traditional culture if we want to stand invincible and always stay in the best culture of the world. In the design process, we should still adhere to the concept of “based on China and facing the world”. We must respect the uniqueness of national art and reflect modern people’s pursuit of fashion. We should strive to find different ways of thinking and unique styles among our national traditional cultures and other nationalities, and apply them to our actual design work. We must combine the traditional culture and targeted culture in the design process to promote the Chinese national culture. This is what we should do and we can do it.

Beijing Institute of Technology School of Design Art Chen Xue Source: Art and Design