What happened between 1980 to 2000
In the new century, Chinese design has entered a new era of self-examination, self-reliance, and self-confidence. Joining the World Trade Organisation meant China would integrate into the international economy and society faster and better. Twenty years after experiencing the international experience of rapid absorption and digestion, Chinese design began to re-examine its excellent traditional genes and local culture in the dialogue between globalization and localization.
In the early 1990s, the outstanding representative designers in mainland China and Taiwan noticeably followed the style of Kan Taikeung and Alan Chan. Although Hong Kong played a leading role through the 1980s because of its relatively free and liberal environment for creative ideas, starting in the 1990s, the quality of graphic design work in mainland China and Taiwan improved rapidly to reach an international standard.
Shui Mo: The New Spirit of Chinese Tradition exhibition in 1985
The 1980s was the era during which Hong Kong played a major role in fostering and building connections with design practitioners and institutes in mainland China and Taiwan. Hong Kong designers responded to the invitation of a Taiwanese graphic design group to participate in the Exhibition of Asia Designing Masters held in Taiwan in 1982. 20 Compared to work from Hong Kong, Taiwan's graphic design was less exposed to Western design, due to the political constraints, censorship, and martial law on the island until 1987. The early 1980s also saw the rise of the awareness of Hong Kong Chinese of their identity due to the coming handover to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, which led to the development of two divergent design trends in Hong Kong. The incorporation and exploration of traditional Chinese elements, begun in the mid-1970s, was expanded and refined while, at the same time, other local design work developed in another direction toward the expression of pure Western themes. Among the prominent Hong Kong designers to continue with the inclusion of Chinese elements in graphic design was Taikeung Kan. As a practitioner of modern Chinese shuimo painting, Taikeung Kan often used Chinese high art objects and brush strokes in his designs. For example, his transitional work between his Chinese style works in the mid-1970s and late-1980s is illustrated by a poster design for Shui Mo: The New Spirit of Chinese Tradition exhibition in 1985. Its black brush strokes, Chinese painting pallet, and red paint formed the basis for his future stylistic signature. The simplicity of the use of only red, white, and black is evidence of the continuity of his style from the late 1970s.
Alan Chan, Canton Disco Club, Corporate Identity, 1983.
Another Hong Kong local trained designer to gain prominence in the 1980s was Alan Chan. As a collector of Chinese antiques, Chan benefited from his knowledge of artifacts from the past, which he often used in his designs. For example, incorporate identity work for the Canton Disco Club in Hong Kong in 1983, Chan borrowed images of swimmers from the illustrations of 1930s Shanghai publications and set them against brightly colored backgrounds to give the illusion of flying through space. Although Chan was best known for this modernized nostalgic style, his other works also demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the blending of Chinese images with modern graphics. In the poster design for Hello Hong Kong in 1987, he created a central image of a black dragon on a red background. The traditional image of the dragon is modified in two ways, with the top half pixilated to evoke a computer image and the bottom half in a stylized brush stroke to evoke traditional calligraphy. Kan and Chan are the best-known pioneers of the modern Chinese graphic design style. Other local designers, trained both in Hong Kong and overseas, who did not identify their style with Kan and Chan also found their own way without featuring a blend of Chinese and Western elements in their design work. Designers such as William Ho, Alan Zie Yongdar, Lillian Tang, Michael Miller Yu, John Au, Jennings Ku, Tony Tam, and Winnie Kwan continued their Western design approach without the incorporation of Chinese concepts and icons as part of their own characteristic styles.
In the early 1990s, the outstanding representative designers in mainland China and Taiwan noticeably followed the style of Taikeung Kan and Alan Chan. By that time, Kan and Chan were well established as the masters of Chinese graphic design within Greater China design circles. Kan, in particular, played an active role in promoting his work in both Taiwan and China, and frequently was invited to give lectures, donate his works to institutions, judge competitions, and participate in shows and solo exhibitions on the mainland. There is no doubt that Hong Kong graphic design, especially as represented by Taikeung Kan, has played an important role in Chinese graphic design history. However, with more active designers in recent times, a great diversification of style has developed. The 1990s can be seen as the era of the rapid establishment of graphic design associations, expanding activities including many events centering on poster design and graphic design publications within Greater China, and the active participation of Chinese designers in major international poster design competitions. The various locales of Greater China had never been so connected and interactive, with a fully merged history of modern Chinese graphic design.
Design Magazines
With the expanding of the local market as well as the demand of local designers to have access to knowledge about international developments and trends, magazines such as the Beijing- based monthly Art and Design, and the Guangzhou-based Design Exchange and Packaging Design, often report major overseas design competitions and exhibitions. Hi-Graphic is a magazine published since January 1998 by the Shanghai Graphic Design Association and is another trendy graphic design periodical. This publication plays a role in introducing outstanding work from overseas, as well as providing a venue for members to display their work and report on their activities. Magazines have become an important means for mainland designers to learn from established international designers.