Editor’s note: On July 6, 2019, the ruins of Liangzhu Ancient City were selected as a World Cultural Heritage Site. Five thousand years ago, the ancestors of Liangzhu took hard work as the song and faith as the song, led the song of the Chinese nation’s galloping history, and accumulated profound and rich cultural connotations.
Zhejiang News Client Hangzhou Channel, together with Qianjiang Evening News and Zhejiang University Press, launched the serial “A Small Shovel and Five Thousand Years: Liangzhu in the Eyes of Archaeological Reporters”, taking you from the perspective of a reporter, observing closely and tracing the people and things behind those discoveries.
Many people enter the museum, will definitely visit the last cultural and creative store “buy, buy, buy”, the goods bought are either designed, or practical, always have to buy something back, to be considered a complete trip to the museum. So, if you buy a 5,000-year-old Liangzhu cultural peripheral, which one will you buy?
For example, this group of basics: mineral water, key bag, canvas bag, will you buy it?
Jade bird table lamp
A Liangzhu jade bird table lamp is still relatively beautiful, that is, the designer prices a little ruthlessly, costing 500 yuan; Books and bags that must be bought when visiting museums are very literary and artistic; The guide book of Liangzhu ruins designed for children is very cute; There are also retro and brain-burning puzzles.
Phone case
These peripherals come from a cultural and creative competition –
After four months of solicitation, in April 2018, the “Yuanliu Liangzhu Cultural Heritage Creative Design Special Competition” hosted by the Management Committee of Hangzhou Liangzhu Site Management Area and undertaken by the School of Archaeology and Museum of Peking University ended. 55 shortlisted works, scored and decided by the final evaluation experts, including three series: visual identity design, daily life design, knowledge dissemination design, and finally 20 winning works were selected.
Liangzhu Museum Cultural and Creative Space, all kinds of Liangzhu cultural and creative products.
Many people are concerned about the visual identity design, that is, which one was finally chosen for the logo of the Liangzhu ancient city ruins. At that time, considering the long-term vision of applying for world cultural heritage and international promotion, the organizer carefully decided that the first prize (i.e. winning the bid award) of the visual identity design group was vacant, and left it for the senior design team to polish in depth in the later stage to present the most classic brand image of Liangzhu culture. Therefore, the organizer decided to add a quota to the original four excellence awards, and finally awarded five excellence awards.
The same is true for the daily life group, where the first prize is vacant. The expert judges believe that the first-prize works should have the attributes of leading the public to deeply understand the culture of Liangzhu, and disseminate the outstanding universal value of the ancient city site of Liangzhu in a popular form, and the shortlisted works still have room for improvement. After discussion, the organizers decided that the first prize of daily life design was vacant, and two more places would be added to the original four third prizes, and six third prizes would be awarded.
In the design process of these brain-opening peripheral products, there are some interesting things and some embarrassing things.
Logos are the hardest to design because people give it a lot of meaning. Nearly half of the designers took advantage of the deformation of fonts such as “Liang”, “Jade”, “Instrument” and “Country”, and combined it with Liangzhu’s iconic jade form. And as a “mother’s family”, whether it is a fish, or an eye, Liangzhu archaeologists can see at a glance whether it is a fish of Liangzhu, whether the eyes are double eyelids or single eyelids, whether there are corners of the eyes, and… Various bugs (referred to as vulnerabilities).
One of the outstanding works in the visual identity group of the Yuanliu Liangzhu Cultural Heritage Creative Design Special Competition
Many designers used variations of the word “Liang”, and some people gave the male protagonist of the animation the names of “Xiaoliangren” and “Ah Liang”. At first glance, it will feel very good, and the word “good” is also pointed, but Wang Ningyuan, a researcher at the Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, hit the nail on the head: many people’s attention is on the good word, which is a bit strange. In fact, the most important thing in Liangzhu is Nagisa, which is the terrain and the entire Liangzhu City, which means a small continent in the water, which can be inhabited, and only those who understand will understand. That’s right, more than 80 years ago, Mr. Shi Xingeng, the discoverer of the Liangzhu site, interpreted in an archaeological report: Nagisa, water small continent; The good, the good.
At the time of the initial evaluation, the main form of one logo was a red square seal, engraved with a beast face pattern. Fang Ming, a researcher at the Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, saw the bug at a glance: “This pattern is not the animal face pattern of our Liangzhu, it is the pattern of jade unearthed in Jiangsu.” If it is our logo, wouldn’t it be a long morale for others? After sifting it out, he thought it was a pity: “If the designer changes a pattern when designing, maybe I will choose.” ”
Household design is the most submitted.
For example, a pair of chopsticks, the designer also sent the real thing. It looks ordinary, but Wang Ningyuan touched it: “Look, the chopstick holder, using the shape of a jade bird, on the head of the chopsticks, is a clang-style tube, this is quite good, if the material is well chosen, it will be very beautiful.” “It seems that the designers have done their homework.
There is also a fish-shaped USB flash drive, which everyone also thinks is beautiful and practical: “Only we know that this is a fish from Liangzhu!” Wang Ningyuan laughed. After speaking, He Chunhuan, who was the general manager of the museum store and catering service of the National Palace Museum in Taipei, immediately gave substantive suggestions: “This involves the problem of commodity packaging, the U disk needs a text description, where its inspiration comes from, China, Britain and Japan need it.” ”
But there are some designs, the brain hole is very large, and it is indeed very grounded, but the experts are a little unable to sit still.
At the first evaluation, a picture of a man’s “underwear” “snapped” on the big screen, and everyone laughed awkwardly. The designer printed the golden Liangzhu god animal face on the side of a pair of dark gray monochrome panties, half wrapped around the thighs to the hips.
There is also a folding cup, made into the shape of a jade clay on the inside and outside. “So Fang, how do you drink it?” Everyone laughed. Zhao Ye, a researcher at the Zhejiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, initially thought it was a trash can, “This damages the image of Liangzhu, and the shape of the jade is actually difficult to do.”
Then, the climax of the discussion came – a pot of succulents, a set of pots, the outer square pot is used to hold water, the outer and inner circles, obviously using the shape of jade. It seemed fine, it was quite small and fresh, but the experts discussed it for half an hour.
“I myself am very opposed to a lot of formalities without thinking deeply about the necessity behind the form. A simple flower pot, simple and beautiful on the line, why do you have to add a jade shape? Zeng Lingbo, deputy secretary-general of Shenzhen Graphic Design Association, said. Another expert “mended the knife”: “In fact, the succulent does not need to be watered, and the design is redundant.”
Wang Yun, director of the Collaborative Innovation Center for Cultural and Creative Design and Manufacturing of the China Academy of Art and president of the Industrial Design Research Institute, explained the reason for the embarrassment from the perspective of design: there is a natural relationship between the artifacts used by the ancients and the type. The current design only takes its shape and ignores its use, there is no use scene, the logical relationship and nature have changed, of course, it will feel awkward.
“I couldn’t agree more.” He Chunhuan cited a very familiar cultural and creative product: “I know” brand paper tape, which happened to be the explosive model she developed when she was in office, and it is also very grounded.
He Chunhuan often watches gift fairs in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and invites them to join when she sees her favorite manufacturers, and once she saw a manufacturer specializing in paper tape, often putting colloquial or newspaper slang commonly used on paper tape, very witty. He Chunhuan showed them an exhibition brochure that the National Palace in Taipei had made, the name of which was “Got It”, specifically saying that after the previous emperor Zhu criticized the fold, he signed “I know”. Manufacturers have the creativity to connect “knowing” and “sophistication”.
“In fact, this product is not the most important product mentioned by the company – they have proposed more than a hundred products, but only this one has become a hit. But when I came to Hangzhou, I saw a paper mill in Zhejiang that had made the brand of ‘Shu Know’ into roll toilet paper. He Chunhuan smiled, “This is the problem of degree, if it is high-level humor, everyone is very easy to accept, if it is made into toilet paper, this propaganda is not the original meaning, everyone is Xuan, meaning that everyone can live an emperor addiction?” That would be too witty. If something like this (‘I know’ toilet paper) is sold in a general department store, I don’t think it matters, but it must not be a museum, because the museum is the last bottom line of cultural exchange, and we must guard this barrier.”
He Chunhuan said that there are some cultural and creative products that look cute, but they have lost their awe and admiration for cultural relics, which goes against the original intention of cultural relics. For example, there was a burst of flip-flops that was popular. Some manufacturers designed the Luohan diagram of Qing Dynasty court painter Ding Guanpeng on slippers, and the researcher of the Calligraphy and Painting Department pointed out to He Chunhuan that this was disrespectful to religious figures. “A royal utensil, the designer must ‘press it to the ground’, which messes up the standards that should have been placed at the top, and the judgment and order that should be secondary. She was blunt.
When He Chunhuan was studying at Columbia University, his first class was “high art low art”, “In the end, whether there is a difference between high and low art, of course.” So who will judge? In the past, we were kings, but now if we ‘sell cute’ and give up the height of culture in order to get everyone’s attention, it would be a pity, and we need to improve and restrain ourselves in many things.”
In Hangzhou, many flower beds, flower pots, pillars, and piers have borrowed jade and statues of the Liangzhu people more than 5,000 years ago, but either the nose and eyes are reversed, or they appear on the garbage can, or the gods go to “raise flowers”.
An expert from the Liangzhu Museum passed near the Lanyue Tower in West Lake and saw several flower beds, with statues of Liangzhu gods on their faces, but the eyes of the gods were gone.
The expert continued to walk in the direction of the solitary mountain and found another flower bed, definitely a product of conscience.
“The ornamentation is meticulous, the prototype is the temple pier M4 cunning, and the upper and lower sections are L-ruler-shaped ornamentation.” Experts say that the designer even takes into account the “corner of the eye” and should be praised. Under popular science, 5,000 years ago, the big eyes of the “basic” mythical beast, with a heavy circle in the middle, side angles and spiral rotations on both sides, like a small eye with a heavy circle with the corner of the eye in the eye socket.
A flower bed near Gushan Mountain in Hangzhou (photo by Xia Yong)
At best, it shows that Liangzhu people are indeed the earliest original designers in China, and their aesthetics are not outdated until now. But on the other hand, as “their own family”, Liangzhu archaeologists are sometimes quite sad, and every time they see some distorted, tampered, or wrong occasion statues or jade congs, they can’t help but complain.
As the only line painter of jade unearthed in Liangzhu, Fang Ming has taken many copycat versions and unknown Liangzhu cultural creations on the streets and alleys, and can almost make a photo album, “Every time I see lamppost bases all over Hangzhou City, and put my nose on the brain door of the gods, I have a desire to cut off the rebirth of them.”
“Form and form are applied arbitrarily, which is not a good thing. The tattoo samples of the statues were used for sacrifices, but now they have become garbage cans, or flowers, which is a bit too much. Cultural and creative products, even if they are transformed, should properly respect the original theme connotation. Wang Yun said that for cultural products, the core of Chinese inheritance is the etiquette system, the so-called Tibetan ritual in the vessel, “because there is ‘etiquette’, there will be a life relationship behind, there will be cultural inheritance, people will have education or cultivation, and will appear ‘right’.” Chinese talk about ‘system’ is ‘shape’, after this relationship is stripped away, the function of its own artifact is superficial, the so-called ‘metaphysical’, this phenomenon needs to be vigilant for our design research or cultural promotion. ”