On November 21st, Zhan Xiaozhong, the assistant professor at the Department of Commodity Design, Ming Chuan University, Taiwan, came to the Hongbin Hall of Jinjiang Hotel, the final evaluation place of the 2019 Sichuan-Taiwan Industrial Design Awards. Professor Zhan Xiaozhong graduated from the University of New South Wales in Australia, and he has taught in Taiwan's Ming Chuan University, Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei University of Science and Technology, and Asia University (Taiwan). How does he cope with the frustration in design education? What challenges does design education face today? Zhan Xiaozhong constantly seeks answers in the industry-academia interaction, and constantly explores the boundaries and essence of design.

Zhan Xiaozhong, communicate with STIDA Design & Brand

Design Education Narrow the Gap between Students’ Creativity and Lack of Practice

Editor: What is the relationship between design education and practice?

Zhan Xiaozhong: People who teach design must design. Design itself is a very physical course, and it is not like telling general theory or completing some subjects in the laboratory, so it must be connected with the industry as much as possible. Only in this way,it is really helpful for students, otherwise it’s very difficult to teach the students with your practical experience. So I have been interacting with the industry for 20 years during my teaching period.

    Now we still have industry-research cooperation. By implementing cooperation with industry in schools, we (design educators) will lead students to complete the case from the perspective of a mentor. The reason why the industry is willing to cooperate is that students have unlimited creativity, but the disadvantage is that students’ lack of practical experience, which needs to be fixed by the design educators.

Editor: How to deal with the frustration of achievement feedback in education?

Zhan Xiaozhong: From Taiwan’s experience, schools in Taiwan have a mechanism to track students after graduation. Of course, this kind of tracking stays at the employment level. Now, many social soft wares provide communication tools. For example, I have an online group with the students in my class now, and even after their graduation, our chat group will remain. Actually we talk about everything online, including the job opportunities I can share.

    I have a close relationship with a few students. Actually, they are students when I first started teaching. They have graduated for almost 20 years and have achieved little success in the business. Now we are more like friends than just teachers and students. Their achievements are actually my achievements. We are very willing to share with each other, which is a useful interaction.

The Problems of Design Exists in Reality, not in the Internet World

Editor: During your career in design education, is there any conflict of educational and cultural ideas?

Zhan Xiaozhong: Including different cultures in different regions, I think it may be alright in different schools. I don't think there is much difference, but I think the  students are different now.

    In the past, there was less information. Unlike now, the Internet can offer accesses to many resources, however, the disadvantage of the Internet is the explosion of information. Students are unwilling to spend time exploring the real problems of design, like the feedback from our users. Now, students are used to finding answers on the Internet, but are not willing to really understand these users. What do they need in real life? This is something we are currently worried about.

    Design is directly related to people. Its problem should be discovered in real life rather than seeking in the online world. Students are unwilling to spend time doing field surveys, interviews or observations now.

Editor: So you think that the student design we see now has too many gorgeous theories, but it deviates from the essence of design.

Zhan Xiaozhong: Design still has to return to its essence. No matter what kind of problem you want to solve, the problem must be discovered first, otherwise what kind of concept you come up with is not enough.

Design Education Carries Social Responsibilities

Design Vitality Extract from Deep Culture

Zhan Xiaozhong (the right) evaluates 2019 STIDA works with other judges

Editor: Your latest paper is focusing on early speech services for Parkinson. What do you think about the boundaries of design?

Zhan Xiaozhong: At present, aging problem is quite serious in Taiwan, and it is also facing declining birthrates. Young people are unwilling to have children, and people’s life spans are getting longer with improved medical care. In this context, how to take care of the elderly has been a discussing subject in the academic community in Taiwan. As mentioned earlier, students must go to specific places, such as the so-called health village. But people in Taiwan is more used to “aging in their home”. They are familiar with the original living environment and are unwilling to move to places such as “the home of the elderly”. Then, under this background we should help people in family transformation and community transformation.

Editor: Taiwan’s cultural and creative industries are very distinctive. How do you think the development of cultural and creative industries?

Zhan Xiaozhong: Taiwan’s cultural and creative industries are probably based on the so-called British cultural and creative goods or cultural industry development concepts. It went well in the initial stage, however, it is facing problems now. It seems that they are all doing branding and packaging with less development on products with cultural connotations. It is very difficult to extract cultural elements . At present, many designs of cultural innovation are biased towards public welfare. Perhaps it can be designed from different aspects, not only from the perspective of public welfare.

Editor: What kind of process is it to extract cultural elements?

Zhan Xiaozhong: For example, the shape of culture, the structure of culture, the color of culture, and the lines of culture can be used to intercept cultural elements from these patterns, pictures, texts and decorative objects, but it can also be taken from a higher-level, which means a kind of mental cognition.

    Many products will only be the application of decoration, and this kind of transfer is kind of low level. It may be easier for the public to accept, but can we have more connotation, more ideas and vitality in thinking about design? Drinking coffee is not just about caffeine. We encourage students to not cut in from a single direction when extracting cultural elements. Maybe they need to do more research and more things. This is the so-called cultural depth. It’s important to encourage students to be able truly interpret cultural elements in design education and to have deep thoughts.