What’s Design in China? A reflection about if and how the Chinese Design is focused on the social and cultural impact of products.

The recent cultural debate is concentrated on the social role of design, recognizing its capability to infl uence, throughout products and services, human behaviours: a direct consequence of the lacking of cultural importance of the economy of production in favour to the economy of knowledge, in particular in the mature western societies. Not surprisingly, the offer of the Design Schools is increasingly focused on social, environmental and economic sustainability. But, what does this change of ‘design focus’ mean in those countries economically emerged at the beginning of the new century? In particular, what does it mean in China, which is considered as the ‘factory of the world’? If much economical and cultural attention has been given to Chinese production, it’s also important to identify ‘what’ kind of Design is emerging in China, considering that our ‘everyday-life equipment’ is almost totally ‘made in China’. And if, as well as in the western countries, the design debate in China is focused on social and sustainable issues, which is the real infl uence for the professional activity of Chinese designers? Especially those designers involved within the Chinese SMEs, that must to meet the unstoppable demand of the global market. The paper reports a critical mapping about the activities of young designers from 4 of the major Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Zhejiang) in order to understand if and how we can state an incremental ‘shift’ within the design skills towards the social and cultural impact of products in China too.