Product details
- ISBN 9781350427815
- Weight: 510g
- Dimensions: 156 x 232mm
- Publication Date: 13 Nov 2025
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Focusing on the late 20th century onward, this book brings to light the ways in which design as a material form has underscored cultural, social and economic changes across Asia.
The Dynamics of Modern Asian Design provides a deeper and more enhanced understanding of material culture in Asia through analysis of examples of ceramics, electronic items, fashion, furniture, interior design, architecture and ornaments from across countries such as China, Hong Kong, India, Japan and South Korea. Authors explore the production of objects as agents in modern material life, moving beyond their roles as commodities and addressing their values in a range of contexts and subjectivities.
Early chapters explore how ceramics and found objects are given innovative forms and meanings in their reincarnation, and how the reinvention of material is critical when design is produced and valued. Authors look at the intricate correlation between materials, design practice and social change, highlighting issues of cultural authenticity and tensions between local and global contexts. They then interrogate the significance of visual appearance in material representations of modern women and religious artefacts, exploring gender and religious representation through the analysis of magazines, statues and objects of adornment. The final section includes analysis of concrete, urban design and electrical appliances, specific to particular cultural and social contexts across modern and contemporary Asian cultures.
Sandy Ng is Assistant Professor of Culture and Theory in the School of Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong.
Megha Rajguru is Principal Lecturer in History of Art and Design at the University of Brighton, UK, where she is also Co-Director of the Centre for Design History
