Design is not only a social practice to benefit human beings and transform nature but also an important human activity involving science, technology and art. Design study covers a wide range of contents and fields. Before the author writes this article by the end of 2018, he reads an article in the “Global Times”, “China's design revolution is coming” (Qian, 2018). The article is brief and far from theoretical in the academic sense, but the central ideas of it such as “design with Chinese characteristics” and “the clashes of design revolution” keep us thinking. After learning, imitating, referring, contradiction, communication, clashes and self-examination, Chinese design and Chinese design research are presenting as the “design with Chinese characteristics”, entering a new thought-provoking and concept-changing painful period. Especially, the leading research of design theory generally lags behind design practice, and the knowledge renewal of design academia is imminent. So it is urgent to get rid of the old research approaches to broaden the research horizon and construct a new research paradigm for the future of design.

2018 is the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. At this very moment, the design circles urgently need to make a systematic summary of the design research and development in the past 40 years. As a special year, 2018 bridges the past and the future with old ideas and new ideas mixing. What happened in 2018 can never be summed up briefly or conclusively. Various kinds of design events, design activities, design forums, and design publications spring up. Among them, some design cases and academic works with illumination have important theoretical significance and academic values. For this reason, the author tries to make a painstaking investigation to abstract the thought-provoking events, topics and theories in modern design from a personal perspective.

How to summarize the theoretical achievements of design research in the past 40 years of reform and opening up? In the grand design category, firstly the three words ‘design research’, ‘design philosophy research’ and ‘design theory research’ mirror the three different aspects of design research. In 2018, marked by the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, summarizing and reviewing the design theory research in the past 40 years becomes a hot topic.

At present, however, to explore complex design problems, we still need to clarify what is design philosophy and what is design discipline. After art is developed into a category, design contributes significantly to the construction and development of national economy. As a national policy to promote the development of the whole society, the development of creative industries and design has become the engine to drive the new economy. This has also triggered a heated discussion on the classification and academic evaluation of design disciplines in design circles and universities. Particularly, how people interpret “design philosophy” reflects the perceptions of different people about design research. Therefore, “how to define design philosophy is not a simple definition of academic concepts. It involves the connotation and denotation of design, and ultimately involves how to evaluate design discipline”. “As a creative activity of human creation, although design has spiritual influence, endows the essence of creative activity in the field of human thinking, its quintessence is functional. Therefore, thinking about how to define design philosophy and design discipline can trace the logical origin of academic evaluation about the ‘practice’ and ‘theory’ of design, and understand the creative nature of design specifically” (Li, 2018).

In the view of academic field, the most authoritative interpretation of design philosophy and design discipline can only be found in the book Course of Design in Chinese Higher Education Institutions which explains at least three questions: the origin of the classification of design discipline, the evolution and current situation of design discipline, and the nature of design discipline. It has literally clarified the general cognition about design philosophy and design discipline that we need to pay attention to at present. However, many explanations in the book are vague and general with a compromise. There is no answer to how to define design philosophy and how to sort out the theory. In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, design has made great progress. But it is still ambiguous about the definition of design philosophy, which is why I spend so much time and efforts expounding my views about design philosophy.

According to the authoritative definition, the commonly recognized design philosophy is different from the previous ‘art design’ and ‘design art’. The new design philosophy is not only a combination of design history, design theory and design criticism, but also a deeper connotation and denotation of the discipline under the new definition. According to the author, the new “design philosophy research” should incorporate the theory of design history and the practice of design creation, in which design practice outweighs design theory. Design philosophy should not only concern about design theory and doctoral programs; it should also have a broad academic vision to understand the research content of design philosophy. Therefore, design philosophy should not merely meet the academic requirement of summarizing from the field of humanistic thought, but also the requirement of formal concern and exploration in the field of design activities, processes, products and popular research in practice.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that “Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and the main contradictions in our society have been transformed into the contradictions between people’s growing need for a better life and the imbalanced and inadequate development” in the reports of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The important remarks reflect the great progress of China's social development and the periodic characteristics of development, and put forward new requirements for the work of our party and state. Through the ages, culture is the soul of a country or a nation, and all nationalities in the world have been deeply influenced by their spiritual culture in various historical stages of development. General Secretary Xi Jinping claimed that we must “firmly establish self-confidence on the socialist road with Chinese characteristics, in theory, in system and in culture to ensure that the cause of the party and the state always advances triumphantly in the right direction”. Among the “four self-confidences”, cultural self-confidence is more basic, broader and deeper. It is the crucial part to explore the discourse power of Chinese design, and also a more basic, deeper and lasting design force. “Better life demand” and “imbalanced and inadequate development” set the new demand for the design circles. “Cultural self-confidence” is an important guarantee for us to tell Chinese stories on the international stage of globalization by physical products.

Fundamentally, design is a cultural issue and telling Chinese stories well involves the issue of design discourse. The essence of design discourse is the cultural influence of a region and a nation. We must clearly realize that we should not stand still once cultural self-confidence is emphasized. Design practice is presented in accordance with economic growth, technical support and scientific invention. Therefore, we still have a long way to go. In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has narrowed the gap with the West in the field of science and technology, and the design of daily life products in China has rapidly occupied some market. Although some design trend with Chinese characteristics may sweep the world, the promotion of the “Made in China 2025” plan will be obstructed by western countries due to a changeable political and economic climate internationally. China's design education has also experienced a long process of learning, integrating, and exploring its own design culture in modern design. Till now the construction of design education and design theory is still in exploration. The great development of China's design industry still has a long way to go, and scholars who perceive the current situation of international design are truly aware of the real gap between us and the western developed countries, especially the gap between the intellectual industry of the whole society, the whole field and that of the west, so design research still bears heavy responsibilities.

Therefore, the design academia should imperatively examine how design philosophy has developed from arts and crafts and pattern learning to modern design in the past 40 years, and how to rearrange the historical development of Chinese design in the past 40 years from the development of concepts, theories and disciplines, summarizing the views and achievements of prestigious scholars and experts at the important stages in the last 40 years. Hence, in 2018, the design and design education circles presented a large amount of activities, reviewing the design research findings of 40-year Chinese design from multiple perspectives and dimensions in order to find a correct way for future Chinese design.

Due to the different design businesses, different personal perspectives, and the different design specialties, the perspectives of design research are different. In 2018, the most noteworthy thing is a series of impressive activities about 40-year Chinese design held by the Central Academy of Fine Arts, which has been reported by the media as the most important in the design industry in 2018. The highlight of the activities was to hold an international seminar “40 Years of Chinese Design - Experience and Models”. Celebrities from the design circles were invited to talk about the development of Chinese design in the past 40 years of reform and opening up. At the same time, a collection of papers 40 Years of Chinese Design: Experience and Models, edited by Liu Bo, was published. The collection embodies the academic thinking of professors such as Liu Bo, who interviewed famous designers and screened a large number of documents. The three parts as “Opening and Transformation (1978-1992), “Exploration and Experience (1992-2008), and Reflection and Innovation (2008-2017) comprehensively review the insights over the past 40 years from a group of renowned designers and theorists at home and abroad, from the late Pang Xunqin, Lei Guiyuan, Feng Jizhong, Zhang Ding, Tian Zibing, Zhu Gekai to the present Chang Shana, Zhang Daoyi, Liu Guanzhong, Wang Shouzhi, including all the representative articles of the design circles in the past 40 years. This can be referred to as the most comprehensive summary of 40 years of design theory in China.

Speaking of the great changes of the design in the past 40 years, Fan Dian said in the preface of the anthology, “Over the past 40 years, the renewal and improvement of Chinese design in cultural cognition is an important impetus for the development of Chinese design. The vision of culture determines the height of design, the mind of culture determines the connotation of design, and the ideal of culture determines the quality of design”. “The modern transformation of design is a transformation of the whole design, including the mode of production, the way of life, the way of design, and the cultural structure. It is the transformation of the design system, the transformation of the mode of life as well as that of the foundation of Chinese society”. In the 1980s, the rapid development of industrialization in China brought about changes in social productivity and production mode, which laid the foundation for the transformation of China's economic and social structure, and thus led to the transformation of the overall structure of design. Although the pace is very slow, with the deepening of reform and opening up and the rapid development of industrial economy and structural adjustment, the pace of this transformation will get quicker and quicker. The voice of design modernization will become the symbol of social modernization in the future” (Liu, 2018). His remarks best illustrate the profound transformation of Chinese design in the past. In order to cooperate with the grand celebration of the 40th anniversary of Chinese design, the Chinese Foreign Languages Publishing Administration and the Central Academy of Fine Arts jointly held an exhibition on the theme of “Forty Years of Chinese Design -- Heritage and Innovation” and the Sino-French Design Forum in the Combine Exhibition Hall in Paris, France, on June 12, 2018, to popularize 40 years of Chinese design overseas.

As individual research achievements, there are numerous works and papers in 2018, among which Cao Xiao’ou’s much appreciated important theoretical book Modern Chinese Design Thoughts studies the development and changes of Chinese design in the past 40 years and is considered as the in-depth research findings in the design theory circle in recent years. This work has aroused heated discussion in the design academic circles for the common phenomenon of “valuing the past than the present”, ignoring the research of modern and contemporary design theory.

Immediately after the publication of the book, the discussion about it reached a climax and it was called a masterpiece in the history of modern design thoughts by the media. Even before the publication of the book on December 8th, 2017, a seminar on “Centennial Development of Chinese Design Theory” and a new book on Modern Chinese Design Thoughts--Life, Enlightenment and Change were also presented before going to the market. This book expounds in detail about the academic trend, practical activities, design details and design phenomena in the design circles since the reform and opening up. According to some critics, this book is a historical research on the issues of development of contemporary design. Starting with the enlightenment of design, the author describes and analyses the social particularity of Chinese design art in these periods from subtlety to unity, closely following the evolution of visual and physical forms of individual, group and country since the reform and opening up, and evaluated on its success and failure. It provides us with an alternative to think about the history of contemporary design.

In 2018, the design circles reviewed and summarized 40 years of design experience and theoretical achievements of China's reform and opening up, aiming to find the development prospect of design in the rapid changes of national strategy, industrial structure, economic structure and production relations. The study of how to size up the situation and break through the bottleneck of major theoretical problems in the study of design does have the pains and confusion, which makes us fully aware of the need to do a good job in Chinese design. On the one hand, we should deeply understand the development of Chinese society and the genuine design situation, the relationship between design and people, environment and society, as well as the needs of today's society and consumers. Then we can further explore how to reinforce the integration of Chinese culture with design trend, try to excavate Chinese life aesthetics and character of design aesthetics, and consider the construction of theoretical system of design discipline belonging to China. On the other hand, in the global situation, we should explore how to elevate design value of discourse from Chinese cultural value. Meanwhile, how to start with deeper design theory issues such as design attitude, design value and design position, how to bring the design issues concerned from the surface policy level into the in-depth study of the essence of design, therefore, jointly lead the future development of Chinese design, so as to truly highlight the discourse power of Chinese design and theory.

In 2018, the topic of “Oriental Design Research” was launched as a major bidding project of the National Social Science (Art), which conforms to the national strategy and economic development. It inevitably results from the persistent cultural self-confidence and cultural consciousness of design circles for many years. As the most theoretical event of design research in 2018, the National Social Science (Art) major bidding project ‘Oriental Design Research’ was finally won by the scientific research team led by Professor Wu Haiyan, dean of the Design College of China Academy of Fine Arts, and becomes the most important design event with very high profile in 2018. This research not only excavates the essential issues of the theoretical research of Chinese design, but also construct the original theoretical research system of Chinese design. Therefore, the design theory circle has launched a heated and intensive discussion about “what is Oriental Design”, “how to establish the aesthetic standard of Oriental Design”, and “what kind of aesthetic character should be established for design products”. Objectively, all the scholars involved in the discussion have their own enlightening theories. Some others have implemented a large amount of research in this area to contribute their academic wisdom to the Oriental Design Research.

As for the Oriental Design, Professor Zhou Wuzhong of Shanghai Jiao Tong University once made thorough research by organizing several “Oriental Design” Forums. Although some disapprove of Zhou Wuzhong's research methods and contents, his research objectively enriches the connotation of the Oriental Design Research from a distinctive perspective. In his article On Oriental Design -The Concept, Content and Research Significance of Oriental Design, he reflects and expounds the design practice of the concept of “Oriental Design” in a systematic way. Zhou thinks “Oriental Design is a theoretical and practical design discipline with historical accumulation, cultural inheritance and modern vitality based on Oriental culture and Oriental philosophy, combined with the practice and theoretical accumulation of Chinese traditional creations from the essence of modern design. It can not only enhance cultural self-confidence, but also inherit and develop Chinese culture to provide new ideas and approaches for innovative design, rural revitalization and cultural revival (Zhou, 2018a).

Meanwhile Professor Wu Haiyan is concerned about the theoretical induction and summary on the basis of design practice. Her research team abandoned the research from text to text, concept to concept, and has continuously involved in design practice, devoting themselves to traditional activation and fashion design, which has laid a strong practical foundation for today's Oriental Design theoretical research. Perhaps her research is different from that of scholars who focus on theoretical research, but her future theoretical research is hopefully vivid..

Certainly, Oriental Design can also be probed from multiple dimensions. What we understand about the essence of Oriental Design is the right of cultural discourse, which advocates a national aesthetic character in design activities and achievements. The so-called aesthetic character of Oriental Design is actually embodied in the design products, which conforms to the life of modern people and abandons the figurative form of product style to express some internal spirit and idea. With the introduction of Oriental Design Research as a major bidding project of the National Social Science and Art Project, this topic has gone beyond the discussion of the general design form. The 40-year reform and opening up in China and the rapid economic development have provided a physical and spiritual basis for the construction of Oriental Design. Without economic growth, the construction of Oriental Design is an empty talk. Without solid economic foundation, the so-called construction of China's modern design education system makes no sense. Due to the unprecedented cultural exchanges between China and the West and the unprecedented strong economic foundation, it is possible for scholars and designers to discuss the Oriental Design with the high cultural self-confidence and cultural consciousness.

But Oriental Design studies can't just focus on nationalized design styles and the figurative collage of patterns. The study of true Oriental Design should be related to the elevation and recognition of the national aesthetic spirit and character, and to the prosperity of the country and the revival of the nation. It should not only have explicit identification, but also implicit requirements, not only takes on the representative form, but also reflect the cultural concepts, cultural attitudes, cultural position and cultural values of its own nation. With equal importance to practice and theory, the abstract design aesthetic ideas and design philosophy must be activated into real products which not only reflect the design trend of today's world, but also reflect the inherent cultural spirit of the product itself. Therefore, the research of Oriental Design should abandon the concrete form to express some inner spirit and cultural will of products, and to summarize the due paradigm of Oriental Design from theory to practice. This is the research of Oriental Design that we want. This is the Oriental Design Philosophy of this era.

Then people may wonder whether Oriental Design can be regarded as Chinese Design? How does the traditional Oriental Design exhibit the modern design taste in inheritance and creation? The concept of Oriental reminds us of cultural geography. In the background of different social and political systems, economic environment, and scientific innovation, the exposition of “Oriental” tends to be ambiguous, vague and relative. For example, how to distinguish Oriental Design from Japanese design? Among Japanese designers such as architects Tadao Ando and Kengo Kuma, industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa, and graphic designer Kenya Hara, all of their works are philosophical in their tranquil, Zen, ethereal realm and soothing aesthetic implication and artistic conception. Their design represents the simplicity, nature, rationality, delicacy and other minimalist style of contemporary Japanese design. Can we regard their design as Oriental? If so, then there is some controversy about the concept of the Oriental. The mass production, Bauhaus, Ulm and the modernist design in the era of high-tech after the Western Industrial Revolution have brought tremendous changes to our social life. Designers have also changed their roles. ‘Less is more’ as functional design aesthetics throughout the modernist design and even high-tech design also appear to be minimal. “Simplicity”, “conciseness” and “practicality” advocated by modern design have displayed the philosophical meaning of “less” and the Zen meaning of “less”, which also serves as a reference to the construction of the aesthetic concept of Oriental Design.

“Oriental Design Research” should also involve design education. Design educators and designers have to think about how it will be presented. First of all, the cultivation of designers from design colleges can usually be divided into three types: manpower, talent, and character. With different teaching objectives, there should be corresponding schools of education systems to support them. With different teaching objectives and requirements, design talents, design craftsmen, design artists and design philosophers are cultivated respectively. Secondly, outstanding design talents should be design philosophers. Why many products on the market have no connotation? It shows that the design products lack design ideas, cultural standpoints and cultural awareness. Even if the designers have their own cultural propositions, they should think about how to put the design concept into practice? Thirdly, the cultural consciousness of designers has become the motivation for the construction of Oriental Design, providing the basis for design practice.

In 2018, the Red Dot Award became the most controversial event. In April 2018, Prof. Liu Guanzhong at the Academy of Arts and Design of Tsinghua University said in an interview that “the Red Dot Award was a commercial organization to cheat Chinese people”, the German industrial design Red Dot Award became a major design news event which provoked controversy on the Internet and further aroused the continuous discussion in design education and design circles.

Recognized as one of the largest and most prestigious design awards in the world, the Red Dot Award originated from Germany with a history of more than 60 years. It has become the trademark of the development trend of global industrial design for a period of time and has been cherished as the “Oscar of Industrial Design” by the design circles. According to the website of the Red Dot Award, China is the region with the largest number of works (about 51%) participating in the Red Dot Concept Award while the award-winning works of the United States, Japan, Britain and other countries are very limited. Based on the analysis of design industry, Western countries have their own design awards with international influence, such as IDEA in the United States, G-Mark in Japan, D & AD in the United Kingdom. Thus, few of them participate in the Red Dot Award (Xu and Gu, 2014). As some awards of it settled in China, the Red Dot Award has resulted in public doubts about its intension and objective.

On April 13th, 2018, the Wechat homepage of the “Industrial Designer” caused uproar after it posted Liu Guanzhong’s remarks, “Red Dot Award is cheating Chinese!” and the formal response from the Red Dot “It’s voluntary!” Liu Guanzhong, the father of industrial design in China, is a highly respected academic leader. He believes that the Chinese winning products in the Red Dot Award, IF Award and other design awards can’t justify that Chinese design is rising. The progress of Chinese design does not need to be recognized by the Red Dot Award. Even if we don’t participate in the Red Dot Award, Chinese design is still progressing. And we can't say that China has ranked top in the world design because of more Chinese winners of Red Dot Awards. Red Dot Awards and IF Awards are manipulated by commercial organizations. Prof. Liu believes that the purpose of the award is to evaluate the design trend. If Chinese know nothing about it, they themselves are to be blamed. The special privilege to foreign awards winners by our government exemplifies the value of these awards and indicates that some Chinese people always think that foreigners are superior to us. Of course, foreign countries are advanced in some ways, but this does not mean that China has no national connotation. In the face of awards such as the Red Dot Award, the Chinese design circles should be sensible. There is no need to go to the extremes and the award is not an end. The real purpose is to guide everyone to implement good things into production. It’s too anxious to seek quick success and benefit rather than implement the winning works (Liu, 2018). Xin Xiangyang, former dean of the School of Design of Jiangnan University, appealed to people to treat the Red Dot Award correctly and rationally from five aspects of its social role, commercial behavior, competition demand, competition process and market behavior, and to learn to reflect profoundly (Xin, 2018). From the establishment of the Red Dot Award to the controversy and then to its evaluation, we need to think reasonably about what award can represent the highest level of Chinese design, how to set up the Chinese design competition with international influence, and how to embody the credibility of the judging criterion in the industry in terms of the current situation and problems in China's design academia.

Admittedly, the Red Dot Award is a design award with international influence, which has objectively made positive contributions to the development of industrial design in China. But due to the excessive publicity, especially the Red Dot Concept Award and of the award-winning colleges and enterprises in China, incredible phenomena happen. From the viewpoints of many design scholars, the first is the vague propaganda of the Red Dot Award. There are three categories of Red Dot Award, namely, Product Design Award, Communication Design Award, and Design Concept Award, and each of which is further divided into three levels. Among them, the most influential is product design award with strict eliminating criteria and the most difficult level of only 1% winners. And our popular ‘Red Dot Award’ is actually a low-level award in the award-winning category. As mentioned in the official website response, the award rate of the Red Dot Award in 2018 is as high as 26%. Too much (Teng, 2018). Secondly, it’s expensive to participate in the Red Dot Award. From registration to participation, from evaluation to review and exhibition, each step has to be paid. In just a few years, the economic benefits of the ‘Red Dot Award’ have doubled and become an important source of economic income for the organizers. The third is the influence of the Red Dot Award in China. At present, there is no internationally recognized award in China, which promotes the academic influence of the three awards of the Red Dot Award. Especially the employment pressure brought by the large scale domestic design education leads to the students in design colleges hoping to prove their design level and increase their employment rate by winning prizes. The controversial news events of the ‘Red Dot Award’ in 2018 have faded, but the thinking remains.

In 2018, in order to fully implement the decision of “the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on winning the battle against poverty” and “the 13th five-year poverty alleviation Plan”, better play the role of industrial design in improving product quality and helping industrial poverty alleviation, effectively fight against poverty and promote coordinated regional development, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued “the Three-year Plan for the Poverty Relief Design (2018-2020). It is clearly proposed that by the end of 2020, no fewer than 1000 product design schemes should be provided to poverty-stricken areas, no fewer than 3000 design training should be carried out, no fewer than 50 visits of designers to poverty-stricken areas should be organized, no fewer than 50 renovated countryside environment or public facilities should be implemented, and tens of thousands of original design materials database should be built and opened free to explore a poverty relief design approach with Chinese characteristics (Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 2018).

“Poverty Relief Design”, ever since proposed, has become a hotspot in 2018. It includes three levels of work. First, to promote the concept in a large scale through conferences, exhibitions, forums, and etc., to explore how the design be incorporated in the countryside during the process of industrialization and urbanization, and to propose the short-term goal of poverty relief design. Second, based on the current situation of relevant design industries, clarify how to get rid of poverty in design, also analyze the possibility to join design and poverty alleviation projects. Thirdly, taking the design system as a basis, reflect and analyze the effective strategies and methods of poverty relief design from big data, sustainable design and design education. Now a large scale “poverty relief design” is just a beginning. China Textile Industry Federation, China Academy of Fine Arts, Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, School of Arts of Soochow University and other institutions in Shanxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangdong and other places have implemented some cases to provide us with a good example of design practice.

As a major theoretical event of design research in 2018, the 2018 ADCS 12th International Research Conference of Asian Design Cultural Society held on November 24th, 2018, has theoretically backed up the design theory for poverty relief design. With the theme of design culture and region, Professor Miyazaki Qing from Chiba University in Japan delivered a speech entitled “Craftsmanship is touching power” at the “Design aid in regional development” session, which tells us the same village emptiness that we experience today in the process of Japan's economic prosperity in the 20th century. He started with the translation of the Western word ‘design’ into ‘artistic craftsman’ by his predecessors in the Meiji era to talk about the emptiness of Japanese countryside caused by economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s, to explain how to reshape the traditional culture and life values in the urban era, which made us think of the heavy responsibility of poverty relief design shouldered by the design circles.

As for the “Poverty Relief Design”, what kind of design is valuable? As a well-known cultural scholar, Mr. Miyazaki answered the question. In his early years, Mr. Miyazaki taught design history centered on the study of design culture. Staring from 1970s he has devoted himself to the Japanese modern “Village-building Movement”. His speech concentrated on “the single historical view of development” and “the multiple historical views of development” and then put forward the absolute values and relative values in the era of industrialization. Superficially, Miyazaki Qing's “Village-building Movement is to inherit traditional culture and revitalize local economy whereas profoundly, it packs a punch on the problems of industrialized society in order to improve common people’s quality of life. It has aroused the attention and thinking of the Chinese academic circles. Especially under the guidance of the current intangible cultural heritage protection policy, how to solve the problems of keeping intangible cultural heritage alive in modern life at present, more and more people refer to Miyazaki Qing's ”Village-building Movement” and subsequent ”Daily Life Craft Movement” and ‘Organic Agricultural Movement’, hoping to be inspired by them. The book “New Countryside Principles-Theory and Practice of Village Revival” by Zhou Wuzhong of Shanghai Jiao Tong University seems to reecho what Miyazaki did forty or fifty years ago (Zhou, 2018b). Though late, it is of great significance. The book is divided into three sections: the first part expounds the related theory and concepts; the second introduces the village building at home and abroad, tracing the theoretical origin of New Countryside Principles; the third part deals with the practice of New Countryside Principles. The introduction of the New Countryside Principles offers reference for village landscape design, village handicrafts and village literary and artistic creation. So the New Countryside Principles put forward by Zhou Wuzhong on the basis of village planning practice can be understood as a design concept, objectively contributing to the theory of environmental design.

This makes us think of Apex Lin Pan-Soong, board chairman of Taiwan Industrial Design Association, who actively enhances the “Design Reversal and “Local Creation Movement’. It is said that the concept of local creation was first put forward by the Japanese Prime Minister in 2014 and Mr. Lin added new content. The common issue is that a large number of young people in the industrial society flock to the city, which makes the village empty. Hopefully, with the design being introduced and the DNA of various village cultures sought, new cultural and creative industries can be thrived to attract young people to return to villages, promoting the local economic construction and population growth to create the local economy in Taiwan.

Our “Poverty Relief Design” is developed on the basis of the practice in Japan and China’s Taiwan. Targeted poverty relief is emphasized to use big data technologies to establish a comprehensive analysis of databases, to build poverty relief design service platforms, and to organize the poverty relief design projects. In particular, it integrates various design resources such as design colleges, designers and design enterprises to provide services such as business analysis, technology research, achievements transformation, information consultation, and investment promotion to the poverty-stricken areas. Market competitiveness of the products in poor areas should serve as a guide to implement business assistance, technical fund support, and information achievement support. The current poverty relief work has entered a crucial stage, and the use of big data for targeted poverty relief is imperative. Using big data analysis to implement the design and application of targeted poverty relief can effectively improve the accuracy of poverty identification, and thus joint the poor natural environment with poverty relief tourism, the poor village industry status with product poverty relief, and the living conditions of the poor with the recipients of poverty relief projects.

It is unprecedented that Chinese engaged in poverty relief design work. The future sustainable design poverty relief approaches should be strengthened not only from the national policy level but also from the perspective of the harmonious development of man, society and nature. It is a great design practice to people’s benefits rather than a theoretical problem. The breakthrough point of poverty relief design has been raised from human needs to social needs, which emphasizes the social responsibility design of social fairness and justice to improve the basic survival needs of social groups and the sustainable development of human society and to truly realize the goal of social design involved in targeted poverty relief. With the concept of ecological balance without destroying the design behavior and mode, it is based on the premise of regeneration and recycling design, and is in line with the design concepts of green design, ecological design and low-carbon design. By analyzing the poverty problems like market design and social design, the idea of sustainable design can be effectively involved in the poverty relief design strategies. Therefore, to complete the poverty relief design is the way to develop comprehensive sustainable design. Above all, the ideal of new village principles can be realized.

To sum up, by sorting out the theoretical achievements, design events and hot topics in 2018, we can better understand the great changes in design research by the current ‘big data’ and ‘sustainable era’, clarifies the theoretical confusion in the process of development, further advocates design theory in line with social development, encourages the unification of design attitude and design responsibility, refines the design philosophy of ‘human needs’ to ‘social needs’ in the new era to improve the correct design objectives and design values.