The Impact Of Western Design School On The Furniture Style Of The Republic Of China

The furniture of the Republic of China is a beautiful “epiphyllum”. It was born in turbulenttimes. But through the foreign and native designers’ joint effort, the furniture of the Republic ofChina had elegant model and nice style which combined the west and the east. It was born in ashort period. But it resolved a lot of contradictions such as the contradictions between Chineseand the West furniture style, traditional and modern furniture style, furniture’s function andmodel. The furniture of the Republic of China gained great achievements on merging east andwest, ancient and modern. So it became a classic in the history of furniture, and gave us preciousrevelation on inheriting national tradition.The author investigated the furniture in the city of Nanjing and Shanghai which was themost important cities during the period of Republican China. We systematically studied theimpact of western design school on the furniture style of the Republic of China. The author notonly found the furniture from the antique market, celebrities’ former residence, the formergovernment sector’s buildings and so on, but also from the old photograph and old advertisementduring the period of Republican China. The author got the design style’s classification system offurniture of the Republic of China through the ways of field research, literature research, caseanalysis and comparative study. This paper not only found rococo and neoclassicism had thegreatest influence on the furniture of the Republic of China, but also found the modern style alsohad the greatest influence on the furniture of the Republic of China. Moreover, this paper alsostudied the designers of the furniture of the Republic of China which there was no one used tostudy. So the author got the way of inheriting national tradition from the furniture of the Republicof China, and got the practical revelation on how to inherit national tradition.