| In the first half of the 20th century,China was at a turning point of the era and underwent revolutionary changes in terms of the political system,economic structure,cultural pattern,science,and technology.In major events where modern Chinese society and design continuously interacted with each other,between the influence and response of foreign challenges to Chinese society,lay the most shining moments of modern design criticism.By taking the period from 1890 to 1949 in modern China as the research timeline,and the design criticism during Nanyang Industrial Exposition,the Zhonghua Exhibition of Chinese Goods and West Lake Exposition held in Shanghai,Nanjing and Hangzhou in modern China as the main research objects,through a combination of qualitative research,structural research,comparative research,behavioral research and quantitative research,this thesis carried out an in-depth analysis and research on raw materials,including official publications released during three expositions,periodicals,newspapers and monographs issued by the folk,and exhibits and physical objects exhibited at three expositions.The relationship between design criticism during modern expositions and different dimensions,such as the development of modern design,cultural dissemination,social change,political change and technological innovation,was explored and the social functions of design criticism were revealed.First of all,this thesis discussed the background of the genesis of modern design criticism from three aspects:the criticism subject,criticism object and communication media.To be specific,the practice of“Presented School Regulation”promulgated in 1904 facilitated the professionalization of the elite education of modern design and mass education.The abolition of the imperial examination system gave rise to intellectuals who directly went to school to learn design and devoted themselves to the career of design criticism.The downturn of modern traditional handicraft industry,the import of cheap machine-made products from the west,the rise of modern industrial and commercial enterprises in China,and the holding of modern Chinese expositions heightened critics’criticism of domestic commodities and daily necessities,the guidance on public thinking by modern newspapers,periodicals,monographs and other publications,the publicity of popular design and the propelling of ideological trend,etc.Secondly,this thesis analyzed the shaping and influence of the styles and illustrations of design criticism essays during three expositions on critical viewpoints.Among them,the prose system of exposition design criticism essays mainly adopted the styles of discussion and explanation,which can help make critical viewpoints accurate,but was not conducive to the reading of readers with low reading ability.The fiction system mainly employed the styles of narration and description,which had high specificity and can make the readers read easily.The less common poem system was characterized by exaggeration,demagoguery,and drama.In addition,the illustration form,as a part of critical argumentation,showed more three-dimensional critical viewpoints to readers.On this basis,photography provided critical viewpoints with the most direct evidence and supplement.Thirdly,this thesis analyzed the influence of the design criticism standards of the three expositions on the formation of various design criticism opinions.Specifically,the influence of the changes in the design criticism standards in each exposition was analyzed from aesthetic dimension,value dimension,and social impact dimension,and the characteristics of the design criticisms in the three expositions were summarized.The criticism standards of aesthetic dimension included aesthetics and creativity.To begin with,the aesthetics standard went through three periods during three expositions,that is,germination,establishment and development,and evolved from advocating complicated and three-dimensional naturalistic patterns to worshiping concise two-dimensional geometric and abstract patterns.The creativity standard,which was in a preliminary exploration stage,principally upheld modern,radical and innovative designs.Secondly,the criticism standards of value dimension encompassed practicality and economy.The practicality standard went through three periods,germination,establishment and development,and evolved from criticizing by putting function and beauty on the opposite side to criticizing through a combination of function and form,thereby adding richer meanings to the functions of products.Thirdly,the criticism standards of social impact dimension included cultural attribute and sustainability.The cultural attribute turned traditional designs into ways to solve social problems from the angles of symbolic,national and inheritance meanings,etc.,while sustainability was a systematic integration of other criticism standards,which promoted designs to solve single or multiple problems at the same time from the perspectives of production and consumption and increased the potential of more sustainable use of products.Taken together,the design criticism during Nanyang Industrial Exposition was generally in a germination period that focused on aesthetic dimension.The design criticism during the Zhonghua Exhibition of Chinese Goods was generally in an establishment period when criticism was approached from three dimensions,while the design criticism during West Lake Exposition was in a development period when criticism was approached by fusing the three dimensions of criticism standards.The exhibits at that time also shifted from simply realizing one-sided value to achieving social value in a wider sense.By synthesizing the genesis environment of design criticism during Nanyang Industrial Exposition,the Zhonghua Exhibition of Chinese Goods and West Lake Exposition,as well as the shaping of critical viewpoints by criticism texts and the development of criticism standards,this thesis summed up the impact of design criticism during modern expositions on design and society:the impact of design criticism during three expositions on design was mainly embodied in form and function,while the impact on society incorporated the impact on social system and lifestyle.The whole development process of design criticism during three expositions stimulated the reform of social system and lifestyle.Design critics gradually shifted from taking design as a tool or a technical activity to viewing it as an independent and holistic social activity.Finally,this thesis concluded the results of the whole research process,which mainly consisted of four points.First of all,the holding of modern Chinese expositions and the development of modern society set the stage for the genesis and development of modern design criticism.Secondly,the design criticism during modern Chinese expositions guided the development direction of modern design,making modern designs shift from focusing on aesthetic and practical value to concerning about social value in a wider sense.Thirdly,design criticism during modern Chinese expositions diagnosed which parts of design products were noxious,wasteful and useless from the perspective of society,providing people with a better way of life and stimulating the progress of modern society.Fourthly,the design criticism during modern Chinese expositions played an enlightening role in the development of the education and practice of contemporary design criticism.The evolution of design criticism during modern expositions also reminds contemporary people who are also at a turning point of era（the launch of the“Made in China 2025”initiative in the context of the fourth industrial revolution）:now is the perfect time for design criticism to grow. |
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