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V&A/RCA History of Design (MA)

Shanshan (Tsu-Hsuan) Lien | 连子萱

Magazine article cover image

Shanshan Lien is a womenswear designer and design historian from Taiwan/Shanghai. Previous to her studies in MA History of Design, she graduated from BA Fashion Design and Technology: Womenswear at the London College of Fashion (UAL). Her work in design history focuses on Chinese design history and Chinese aesthetics, which a particular interest in decolonial histories. The dissertation 'At Home in Shanghai: Reconsidering Taishang AestheSis' questions the stereotypical depictions of Chinese interiors in coffee table books and advocates for a pluriversal understanding of aesthetics. Her essay, 'Two European Opium Smokers from Jingdezhen', analyses a porcelain Dutch figure group (c.98-1963, V&A) made in Jingdezhen between 1760 to 1780. It explores the agency and intentions of the potters and painters through the historical context of taste, porcelain production, and export trade.

Image: Cover of magazine article, ‘Taishang zai da’shanghai de xingfu shenghuo’ ‘台商在大上海的幸福生活‘, Business China 中国商界 2003. 

Image of the student.

I am an arts, design, philosophy, history, and culture enthusiast. My upbringing makes me a conflicting person, culturally and epistemologically. I speak in an American accent, live in London, and am most fluent in Chi-English. The design I learned seeks approval from the Western aesthetic, but I create art through the Chinese aesthetic. I have a hairstyle designed by a (great) Japanese hairdresser and wear clothes from all over the world, but my favorite will always be my grandmother's tang suit. I love Christopher Nolan and Wassily Kandinsky (and so much more). To be honest, I think this makes me a great dissertation topic! And really, that is my point. My work is me. Through my writing and designing, I become me, and through me, I become writing and design. So!, as someone that values the journey so much more than the result, I present you my summer reading/watching list as a statement of what I (my work) will be next :

  1. Zhu Guangqian 朱光潜, On Beauty 谈美
  2. Lacuna Park, Essays and Other Adventures in Photography
  3. Stephen Mumford, Metaphysics: A Very Short Introduction
  4. Rana Mitter, Modern China: A Very Short Introduction
  5. Ben Willis, The Tao of Art
  6. Neil Leach, The Anaesthetics of Architecture
  7. Hou, Hsiao-Hsien 侯孝賢, 'A City of Saddness' 悲伤城市



magazine article on Shanghai fever
’移居上海热：过半台商在上海购房‘ – 'Shanghai migration fever: more than half of Taiwanese businessmen are buying homes in Shanghai'. Magazine article in 2003 on the 'Shanghai fever' phenomenon, one of many printed media that formed my research on taishang. Image: Jiang yizhi 江逸之, 'Yiju Shanghaire: guoban taishang zai shanghai goufang' ‘移居上海热：过半台商在上海购房’ , Global Views 东方企业家 Vol.5 (2003), p.63.
Beijing siheyuan (quadrangle courtyard) drawing
Beijing siheyuan (quadrangle courtyard) – The Beijing siheyuan and Suzhou Tinjing courtyards are both discussed in comparison with modern Shanghai floorplans. Image: Ronald G. Knapp, China’s Old Dwellings (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2000) p.113.
visibility graph of floorplan.
Space syntax analysis (depthmapx) of floorplans – Space syntax, theory and tool kit, introduced by Julienne Hanson and Bill Hillier were used to analyse floor plans of Shanghai apartments. The software used was DepthmapX. This is the visibility graph of LWZ116 (lvdi waitan zhongxin 绿地外滩中心. Image: Shanshan Lien, LWZ116 VG (Depthmapx, London, 2023).
photograph of dining room.
Photo-elicitation interviews – Photo-elicitation interviews were conducted with four taishangs regarding their homes in Shanghai. This is XB's dinning room. Image: XB, Dining room, Shanghai, 2023.
photo of a green space inside a gated micro-district.
A View – The topic of the relationship between humans and nature is mentioned frequently in the research. Specifically the aesthetic experience of nature and how that influences the space and the inhabitants. This is the view outside XQ's balcony. Image: XQ, 'View out of my balcony', Shanghai, 2022.

Abstract

Red lacquer cabinets, Ming-style chairs, and a framed calligraphy on the wall, sometimes even a little garden. The aesthetic of the Chinese home is often misunderstood as a mystical experience of qi, yin and yang, and fengshui. Inspired by ‘Decolonial AestheSis: Colonial Wounds, and Decolonial Healings’, this dissertation is a response to the coffee table books on Chinese interiors, and an attempt to bring back pluriversality to the Chinese aestheSis experience. I focus on the aestheSis of the homes of a small population of Taiwanese businessmen (taishang) in Shanghai. Through space syntax analysis of floorplans (compared with traditional housing Beijing siheyuan and Suzhou tinjing) , and visual and textual analysis of photo-elicitation interviews (compared with Chinese aesthetic philosophy and Modernist aesthetics), this study covers the structural aesthetics and decorative aesthetics of the Shanghai taishang interior. Come and feel the aestheSis practice in the lives of Shanghai taishangs.


Walter Mignolo and Rolando Vazquez, ‘Decolonial AestheSis: Colonial Wounds/Decolonial Healings’, Social text online (2013)

porcelain figure group
Figure Group, Jingdezhen, ca. 1760-1780 (Victoria and Albert Museum). – These are the two opium smokers from Jingdezhen. Their identities are unknown, and that is exactly what I try to decifer in my essay. Who are you guys?
drawing of the European Palaces of Yuanmingyuan
The Twenty Views of the European Palaces of Yuanmingyuan ca. 1783-1786 (Victoria and Albert Museum). – During the Qing dynasty, especially under Qianlong's reign, the western decorative style was greatly favoured. An example is the European Palaces of Yuanmingyuan.
Dutchman on Mythical Animal (Dehua, ca. 1700-1720)
Dutchman on Mythical Animal, Dehua, ca. 1700-1720 (Dresden Porcelain Collection, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen) – Porcelain figures of Dutch subjects were not uncommon. They were first found to be made in Dehua, another city known for porcelain production (especially their white porcelain).
Yongzheng's Twelve beauties (China, ca.1732)
Yongzheng's Twelve beauties, China, ca.1732 (The Palace Museum, Beijing, China) – Costume of the figures were compared with paintings and drawings from the same period.

Medium:

Essay
essay
 
Untitled – This was a video made during the week-long school unit, Urgency of the Arts. In my chosen group, Wild Genders, we created a safe space to talk and share about gender. This video documents the reason why I started training in martial arts. The female fighter has the same stats as me, while the male fighter has the ideal stats for winning a fight against someone like me. The two game-play (UFC 4 by EA Sports) is overlayed to present the physical difference of a female and male body in fights.

This was a video made during the week-long school unit, Urgency of the Arts. In my chosen group, Wild Genders, we created a safe space to talk and share about gender. This video documents the reason why I started training in martial arts. The female fighter has the same stats as me, while the male fighter has the ideal stats for winning a fight against someone like me. The two game-play (UFC 4 by EA Sports) is overlayed to present the physical difference of a female and male body in fights. 

Medium:

Video
gendervideo-art
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