higher education.
Changes in the Chinese Modern Art, Craft, and Design Higher
Education
Following the same pattern as the last section about the UK, this section will discuss the history of art, craft and design higher education in China in a chronological sequence. First, it describes the master and apprentice arts educational system that prevailed in China before it developed its modern arts education system. It will then address China’s modern art education, which contained Chinese traditional art education and science and technology dating from after the Opium War. At this time, art was still valued equally alongside craft. Third, a fine art education in a real modern sense will be discussed. The next section briefly introduces decorative pattern design education which I discussed in detail in the previous chapter. The fifth subsection will present Chinese modern craft education, including the foundation of the first craft/design higher educational institution in China. Then I will examine the co-existence of modern craft and design education. It contains three small sections: disappearance of the term “Chinese modern craft”, the merger between the first craft/design school and a university, and the return of the term “Chinese modern craft”. In the last subsection, I will discuss the status quo of Chinese art and design higher education.
96 A Prologue: Master-Apprentice System To understand Chinese modern art and design higher education, one needs to recognise the colonial conflict that accompanied its inception. The beginning of the 1840s, the time of the first Opium War, marked a transitional stage of Chinese history as well as Chinese modern education. Before that, China as an agricultural society followed its traditional rules of pre-modern economy system. As a reflection of this traditional system, the original art and design education was based on the Master-Apprentice System. After that, art and design education in a modern sense started. It was shaped not only by China’s socio-cultural tradition and its process of feudal society, but also strongly because of the influences of the Western capitalistic industry. Before the threshold of Chinese modern art and design education, Yuan (2003, p.4) cited the Book of Diverse Crafts or The Record of Examination of Craftsman- “Kao Gong Ji”( )40 that the Master and Apprentice System could be dated from the Pre-Qin periods: the Spring and Autumn (770-476 BC) and Warring States (475-221 BC) periods. For thousands of years, traditional art, craft and design in China was passed on from father to son and from master to apprentice. After the Opium War, China was forced to transform from a feudal society to a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society along with the further development of the bourgeois factors within its semi-feudal economy. The one-fold master- apprentice system began to constrict the development of art and design education at this special transitional period.
The restriction and flaws of the traditional master-apprentice education had three aspects. Resembling the guild framework in the Western European countries (Pevsner, 1940, p. 114; p. 245), the development of master-apprentice system in China was first restrained by the handicraft guild system which allowed a limited
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number of apprentices in one workshop. It also restricted the recruitment within families, districts and industries, which impeded the development and interchange of handicraft experiences among different industries, districts and families. Secondly, Yuan concluded that the traditional handicraft master- apprentice system placed undue emphasis on oral transmission, masters’ demonstration and apprentices’ imitation (2003, p. 4-6). It lacked the theoretical knowledge and recorded experiences, which could be passed on from generation to generation. Thirdly, because of the emphasis of inheritance and imitation, apprentices were basically short of creativity and theoretical thinking which are the important aspects of modern art and design school education. That was why Yuan believed this type of handicraft training was not a formal education to educate specialists and its drawbacks were even distinct when China became a semi-feudal society from the 1840s. The First stage: Art/Craft Education in China Therefore, after the country’s “door” was forced open in the 1840s by the Opium War, new forms of school education in art, craft and design gradually rose and developed, and among “art”, “craft” and “design” modern higher education, art/craft education occurred earlier than the other two. First, as discussed earlier in chapter 3 (see pp. 47-48), the sphere of the modern sense of “art” in China at this period contained different kinds of science, technology and manufacturing industries because, as new technology was introduced to China, it was found that advanced science and technology was what the country needed urgently at that time. In addition, during this era, art education and craft education to some extent meant the same thing. This is because the traditional “art” in China meant skills, method and craft. This influenced the modern meaning of art in China. When the Western new sense of “art” was imported into China, “art” was still perceived to be another mode of “craft”.
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Thus, the relationship between art, craft and others science and technology industries at this time was blurred and many technology subjects featured art, and craft elements to them. Art/craft acted mainly as a part of technology and manufacturing industries. Many art/craft schools were set up to teach crafts and technology as well as to boost all kinds of manufacturing industries which not only included art and craft subjects such as metalwork, ceramics, pattern design, sketch drawing, lacquer ware, casting, carpentry, glassware, architecture and textile, but also comprised science and technology subjects such as electric engineering, chemistry, railway, shipbuilding, mining and machine manufacturing.
Up to 1903, these subjects’ divisions were confirmed by the first modern governmental educational system Guimao Educational System (“Gui Mao Xue Zhi”- ) (Yuan, 2003, p.7-9; p. 56). This educational system indicated the end of Chinese traditional education and the beginning of modern education. In this Guimao Educational System, handicraft/art was settled as an optional course in primary and secondary schools and as compulsory course in (private) normal schools, vocational schools, industrial schools and other higher education institutions. Most importantly, a specific subject sketch drawing was coined in the Guimao Education System as an independent art/craft subject. This meant that art and craft was considered not only as part of other technology and manufacturing industries but also as an independent subject discipline.
Before long, from the 1920s, the terms “art”, “fine art” and “craft” were distinguished from each other, and art people realised the relationship and division between art/craft and modern industry and manufacture. Chinese traditional craft subjects, Chinese painting, calligraphy and some Western subjects such as artistic anatomy, oil painting, watercolour painting, still life and art history were taught in different kinds of art/crafts schools rather than taught by the master-apprentice system. Art and craft education in vocational schools particularly emphasised educating craft specialists, normal schools placed extra
99 emphasis on general art/crafts education and educating craft teachers, and fine art was conducted in several (public) schools of art. The Second Stage: Modern Art (Fine Art) Education These public art colleges could be seen as symbols of Chinese modern fine art/art education. Xiyang Yuan (2003, p. 86-87) stated that the Schools included the predecessors of the Nanjing University of the Arts; Private Shanghai Vocational College of Art (1912) and the predecessor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts; National Beijing Art College (1918)41. The classes of fine art not only included
Chinese painting and some of the traditional crafts subjects, but also contained the Western oil painting and drawing. As the earlier art/craft education I discussed in the last subsection was not entirely a modern meaning since they included science and technology, this modern fine art education was the true modern sense of education among modern art, craft and design in China.
There were historical reasons that modern fine art/art education happened earlier than modern craft and design education in China. Firstly, the modern sense of craft and design was relatively new to China, so the country needed time to accept and process these new concepts. Secondly, China had a long and uninterrupted history of drawing and calligraphy, and drawing and calligraphy was considered to be higher than the traditional craft activities from the earlier dynasties. As mentioned in chapter 3, from Han Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, the imperial family all created their own Painting Bureau and Chinese painting had a high status in Chinese society. The later “literati painting”, which developed from the end of Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty, became the mainstream of elegant taste among literati and scholar-bureaucrats. Moreover, as Ruilin Chen (2006, p.22) stated, China started to be aware of the Western oil painting and the Western art from the 16th century when the Europeans first came to the East. That
41National Beijing Art College later became the National Beiping Art College and then the Central Academy
100 was when the Western oil painting skills were introduced to China42. Thus, when China started to know “modernity”, art and fine art was deemed more important than craft and design. Without doubt, the development of art and fine art modern higher education in China in the 20th century should be attributed to Yuanpei Cai who was the Minister of Education during the period of Nanjing Provisional Government in the Republic Period and one of the most influential educators in modern China. Yuanpei Cai studied abroad in Europe and was influenced largely by Western philosophy, aesthetics and pedagogy. He brought out the ideas of “aesthetic appreciation education” and “replacing religion by art education” to adopt the Western theories of aesthetics and art pedagogies in Chinese modern art and design education (Chen, 2006, pp. 115-118; Chen, 2011, p.1). He proposed that art education was as significant as science and technology education. He argued to use art education to improve cultural qualities for all the people. In his opinion, the development of Western modern society was based not only on the advanced science and technology but also on art, craft and design. The establishment of the first higher educational institution in art, the National Beijing Art College (the predecessor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts) was due to his proposal to the Beiyang Government in the late Qing Period. The Third Stage: “Decorative Pattern Design” (Tu’ An) It is a remarkable fact that this National Beijing Art College and some other schools of art mentioned earlier, all contained the department of “decorative pattern design” when they were initially developed for art education. The national Beijing Art College established its decorative pattern design department in 1918. It was the first time that decorative pattern design was taught in China. As already
42 Some Chinese painters were affected by the Western style of painting and the famous Western painter in
Qing Dynasty was Shining Lang (Giuseppe Castiglione) who was an Italian Jesuit lay brother and served as a missionary in China. He became a royal painter at the Painting Bureau of the emperor.
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discussed in the previous chapter, the notion of “decorative pattern design” was introduced to China by Japan in the early 20th century to contrast with the Western modern concept of “design”. It has two characters in Chinese, which are called “Tu’ An”. It could mean both craft and design in China at that time because of the unclear understanding between the modern meaning of design and craft43. Due to the confusion in the notion of decorative pattern design, it was then replaced by another form of Chinese Modern Craft education. The Fourth Stage: Chinese Modern Craft Education As discussed in the previous chapter, the exploration of this notion happened in the 1920s when the Japanese adopted the philosophy of arts and crafts from the British and the Western European Countries’ Arts and Crafts Movement and spread it to China (Yuan, 2003, pp. 16-19). The term “Chinese Modern Craft” was first translated into Chinese in Yuanpei Cai’s book the Origin of Fine Art, when Cai defined fine art as including architecture, sculpture, painting and “Chinese modern craft”44 (Lusheng Pan, 2009, p. 64; Xiaoyue Zhu, 2009, p. 25). Then this new notion of Chinese Modern Craft45 soon became prevalent and replaced the notions like traditional craft (Gong Yi), handicraft, decorative pattern design and other descriptions of the previous versions of craft. Yet, the public and even the art, craft and design insiders were still confused about the meanings of it all, and its development was, to some extent, brought to a standstill. In that dark period from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the foundation of the People’s Republic of China (1840-1949), the country was not the kind of fertile soil for the tree of modern art, craft or design education.
43 See previous chapter to read more about the confusion of decorative pattern design.
44 This understanding and classification of the terms fine art and “Chinese modern craft” was due to
confusion and misunderstanding of the western modern terms of art, craft, and design and Chinese traditional culture in art and craft.
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As Yuan (2003, pp. 118-135) concluded, the 1840s was not the perfect time for China to develop modern art, craft, and design education basically because of the depressed economy, a chaotic political environment and traditional bias towards crafts industries. First, the natural economy was struggling because of the economic aggression and the Second World War while the emerging national capitalism was developing hesitantly in the crossfire of imperialism, feudalism, bureaucracy capitalism and comprador46 capitalism. Due to this sluggish economy
and negative demand for arts and crafts specialists, traditional handicraft and modern craft was endangered. Second, the outside perception of Chinese modern craft was imperfect, it was not only the public that failed to believe the close connection between craft, manufacture and people’s life, but also the industrial and commercial circles lacked reasonable recognition towards modern craft and its education. Without their demands and support, Chinese modern craft education and the professionals it trained would be divorced from reality and social needs. Thirdly, bias and ignorance of art and crafts were a long-standing problem in Chinese society. It was not only the public but also Chinese modern craft educators and their students had contempt for Chinese modern craft subjects and industries. In these circumstances of internal trouble and external invasion, the development of modern craft and its education before the foundation of the New China in 1949 faced unthinkable difficulties.
After the establishment of the New People’s Republic of China (1949), Chinese modern craft industries and its higher education were developed effectively and promoted by the government, which believed it was an effective method to boost the national economy and to export products to other countries. The term Chinese modern craft was confirmed as a standard name at that time to replace other previous terms. Moreover, a Chinese modern craft educational system was fully established based on many art educators’ reformation proposals in the first educational reform (1952) in the new China (Yuan, 2003, p. 19; p. 144). 46 “A person who acts as an agent for foreign organizations engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation” (Oxford Dictionary, 2016).
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This educational system divided Chinese modern craft education into three levels. As Yuan (2003, pp. 144-146) concluded, the first level of the system was the central art school, which was suggested by the government to reorganise and upgrade to a higher educational art institution followed the mode of Royal College of Art in the UK and the Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs in France. Apart from its original departments of Chinese painting, painting, sculpture and architecture, the department of Chinese modern craft was proposed to “educate Chinese modern craft professionals and promote the nation’s modern craft standard” (Yuan, 2003, p. 145; Hang et al.47, 2011, p. 2). It contained ceramics, dyeing and weaving, printing, carpentry and lacquer art. In the second level of the system, firstly, the setting up of an affiliated vocational art school of the central art schools was proposed by the 1952 educational reform. In addition, the 1952 reform also proposed to establish or reorganise vocational craft schools and vocational art schools in each province based on their local industries, following the German mode of local vocational schools. The purpose was to train vocational craft, and art and design professionals. The system’s third level was the secondary and primary modern craft education, which had the purpose of inspiring the students’ interests to modern craft. The reforms of 1952 that introduced this system improved the standard of Chinese modern craft and its education as a whole and preliminarily formed Chinese modern craft higher educational system.
This educational reform had another outcome for art schools in China. In the memoir Education for 1.3 Billion (Li, 2005), the former Vice Premier Lanqing Li mentioned that this reform in 1952 combined similar departments and subjects from different universities or institutions. This also happened to art schools with some art schools being merged to centralise the influence of modern craft specialists and facilities. Before the reform, 12 higher educational art schools and
47 “Prof. Jian Hang edited the book A Brief History of Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University with
his team. The book, which is authored by the School History Editing Team, will be referred as Hang et al. in the thesis.
104 craft vocational schools existed across the country. According to Yuan, and Hang et al. (2003, p. 146-148; 2011, p. 3), some higher educational and vocational art institutions had department of modern craft already48. After this first educational reform, twelve art schools were merged into seven and three of them included modern craft departments at that time. From 1958-1960, over seven art schools created modern craft departments or subject disciplines (Yuan, 2003, p. 152). Foundation of the First Craft/Design School in China
The reform of 1952 also influenced the establishment of the first craft/design school which can be seen as a symbol of Chinese modern craft and design higher education. In 1956, a central school of modern craft was established. Although its initial Chinese name was Central Academy of Arts and Crafts (later Academy of Arts and Design in Tsinghua University), its English name was translated into Central Academy of Arts & Design in 1986 in order to be compatible with the later new idea and philosophy of modern design and to propagandise its brand properly (Hang et al., p. 103). The school is seen as the first and the most important modern higher educational design institution in China.
The 1952 reform gathered a group of modern craft specialists and educators together, who were the founders of this first modern craft/design school in the capital city Beijing, (Hang et al., 2011, p. 3; Yuan, 2003, pp. 148-149). They not only had Western or Japanese modern art, craft, and design educational experiences and plenty of modern craft and folk art practical experiences, but also had lofty ideals to develop their own art and design career and education in China.