The current situation and future development trend of new Chinese furniture

Abstract:

Chinese furniture has undergone changes over the thousands of years of development from ancient times to modern times, from the initial basic needs of everyday life to the peak of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Chinese furniture has been in the doldrums for a while after the impact of foreign cultures, but with the rapid development of China’s economy, Chinese furniture has quietly recovered and produced “new Chinese furniture” to meet the needs of the times, which is not only the inheritance of China’s long history and culture, but also in line with the international trend. In order to better develop Chinese furniture, the following is a discussion of the current situation and future trends of the new Chinese furniture.

1 The quietly emerging trend of new Chinese furniture thinking.

New Chinese furniture style is a continuation of Chinese furniture style, also called modern Chinese furniture style, which is the interpretation of traditional Chinese cultural meaning in the current era.
New Chinese furniture design is not purely a pile of elements, but a combination of modern habits and traditional elements to create something rich in traditional flavor with modern aesthetic concepts, so that traditional art is passed on in a new vein. The design concept of new Chinese furniture relies on the comfort and casualness of modern furniture, but retains the characteristics of Chinese furniture in form and spirit. Taking traditional cultural connotations as design elements, removing superfluous carvings combined with features such as comfort and functionality of modern Western-style furniture. The birth of this new style also brings lifestyle to the whole furniture design industry, its significance value is the modern style based on the connotation of the traditional Chinese cultural significance.

2 Analysis of the current situation of new Chinese furniture.

( 1) The style characteristics of the new Chinese furniture.

1) The new integration of culture.

In recent years, with the improvement of living standards and ideological consciousness, the pursuit of life is not entirely in the material, need to enjoy the spiritual connotation. Chinese designers gradually understand that design does not only refer to the aesthetic appearance, but its deeper meaning lies in the spiritual support of people, the carrier of national culture, lifestyle and economic level, and other aspects of embodiment.

2) Product shape appearance. Modeling, is the key to the success or failure of furniture design.

A good, beautiful shape can give people a sense of visual beauty and spiritual pleasure, comfort. This requires designers in the shape of the fundamental concept from the current habits of people’s lives, cultural background, science and technology combined to consider. Ming and Qing dynasties furniture in stylistic style in general, can be summarized in the shape of concise, rigorous structure, atmosphere and solemn to be summarized.

3) Function.

Chinese traditional furniture in some functional design has long failed to meet the needs of consumers now. New Chinese furniture is borrowed from the diversity of modern furniture, diversification and other unique design concepts. In addition to retaining the original cultural flavor and simple shape of Chinese furniture, there is a breakthrough in functional innovation, including the refinement and expansion of the function of two aspects.

New Chinese furniture in functional refinement compared to Chinese furniture to do more detailed, in-depth design research, the overall shape of the furniture style does not have a significant impact. In the functional expansion of the furniture so that the adjustability, flexibility of use, the applicability of different people to do a more comprehensive upgrade.

4) Positioning the crowd. Chinese furniture is about tradition, elegance, calmness, quietness, cultivation of the gods.
　　

Literati, scholars, painters, people who admire traditional Chinese culture, etc. have become the followers.
　　
Not only that, the new Chinese furniture because of the design concept of innovation in function, shape, proportion and color to strive to combine traditional
Culture and modern elements combined, more affinity.
　　
More and more young people also see the classical fashion of Chinese furniture, which to a certain extent not only expands the consumer base of new Chinese furniture, but also allows Chinese traditional culture to be passed on in a more intuitive and emotional way.

( 2) The problems of new Chinese furniture.

1) There is no prototype reference for the design of new functions.

The way of life in the Ming and Qing dynasties was vastly different from that of today, so the inherent appearance form of Ming and Qing furniture was determined by the content of life and the use of functions at that time. With the increase of modern life content, the original functions of various types of furniture may change or increase, and there are new requirements for the form of furniture. Therefore, analyzed from the functional aspect, the traditional Ming and Qing dynasty furniture can only partially meet the needs of modern use functions. This requires contemporary designers to have a deep study of traditional Chinese culture in order to better integrate Chinese furniture with modern functions in a perfect way, without losing the flavor and integration.

2) The extensive use of natural resources.

For furniture, materials are like human bones, flesh and skin, which play the role of support, enrichment and protection respectively. Therefore, the choice of materials has become one of the important indicators to measure the comfort of furniture. In today’s rich and colorful variety of materials, Ming and Qing furniture still maintains a strong charm and vigorous vitality, one of the important reasons is the material. But in the increasing scarcity of hardwood materials, the concept of environmental protection is rising today, will certainly also bring constraints to the development of new Chinese furniture.

Throughout the furniture design and manufacturing developed countries, the emergence of each new material, can drive the vigorous development of their furniture, such as Scandinavian furniture design in the glue-laminated bending era, with its unique shape, simple curved wood furniture has become a pivotal school of modern design. New Chinese furniture should go to explore the organic combination of new materials and traditional culture, in order to make the new Chinese furniture in modern society better development.
　　

3 Exploration of future prospects of new Chinese furniture design.

( 1) Concept innovation.

Humanized design, human culture design and green design are hot topics in today’s society. In the process of summarizing the development of Chinese furniture, every change of furniture is following the concept of “reverence for nature, people-oriented, cultural penetration”.
　　
In dealing with the relationship between products and nature, to promote “ecological design and green design”.
　　
In dealing with the relationship between products and people, we should advocate “people-oriented and cultural return” in order to achieve “universal design and humanized design”, and fully reflect the national and local cultural heritage on the basis of modern design concepts.

( 2) Try the use of new materials in the new Chinese furniture.

Environmental protection is the pursuit of humanization in modern design, with the progress of science and technology, new materials are emerging in various fields of application is very extensive, furniture is also changing and updating with the abundance of materials. Chinese furniture is very careful in the selection of materials, generally choose the best good wood, the modern era of mass production and consumption, resulting in the use of natural resources in large quantities and the relative scarcity of natural resources today, is a problem that we can not avoid.

Specific historical background of all good national culture should adapt to the development of the times. We can try to develop new Chinese furniture with the combination of bamboo, plate or other new technologies and materials. New Chinese furniture is an organic combination of modern design concepts and traditional culture, redefining traditional culture, dealing with its relationship with people and the times, creating a Chinese culture belonging to this era, is the best interpretation and inheritance of national culture once.

( 3) Combine industry, schools and research institutions.

Research institutions should go to the people to listen and understand if they want to have more in-depth research results, and interact with the industry to find the right development path for enterprises. Schools and other educational institutions should also actively contact with enterprises to understand the shortage of talents in the industry, not only from the point of view of academic education to see the problems in the industry, but also to solve the problem from the technical point of view and cultivate technicality.
　　
Likewise the industry should actively feed back the problems to the research institutions and bring experience and knowledge to the educational institutions, so that the three form a positive interaction, thus forming talents who master the theory of knowledge, have aesthetics, engineering and know the relevant knowledge of the production chain. In a sense, people who master modern industrial technology are the most critical link in creating value and promoting the extension of cultural connotations, and it requires the integration of resources from industry, educational institutions, and research institutions.
　　

4 Conclusion.

After a general understanding of the current situation of new Chinese furniture, this paper has elaborated some ideas and opinions on the connotation and ideas of the creation and innovative design of new Chinese furniture. Furniture is a social and cultural form, but also reflects the level of development of productivity and aesthetic habits of people in a certain period of time, and is a comprehensive reflection of technological progress and artistic characteristics.

Each period produces a unique culture belonging to that era, and Ming and Qing dynasty furniture has reached a height that is unsurpassed by our descendants in terms of craftsmanship, technology, shape and aesthetics. However, due to the demands of mass production in modern society, it is clear that the production model and processing techniques of Ming and Qing furniture are no longer very adaptable to the requirements. Therefore, whether from the development or structural design, the use of materials, processing techniques, etc. should be pursued a new form, both to reflect the soul of Ming and Qing furniture and to meet the needs of modern people.