Design is a new word in china.Chinese teacher know little about it.They can do their job well? 
Chinese student,good or not?
maybe chinese students have more potential!
Lets put it this way- there are more Chinese students. Even if 90% are crap you will pump out more quality designers than other parts of the world, but that still would not be enough to meet the manufacturing and design needs of China. My impression of Tsinghua University in Beijing was that the curriculum was on par with the rest of the world and the facilities seemed to be better.
THat said- I dont think that Chinese students have to be better or worse, they have a better understanding of China, and the Chinese values. You also have access to American and European media, so you can at least learn something (though I think that the Internet and TV, movies can give a stilted impression).
Are you finding yourself frustrated with your students?? Just wondering why you asked the question.
totally agree~~
i am a chinese student majored in Industrial design, now i am in my third year in University. but it really lack of good teachers , i almost learn everything by myself , ID in china has a long way to go . Collge Entrance Exam won’t give the country excellent designer, the education system itself has its backwards. So i decide to stop my study and go on my study in Germany, i hope i can learn more there.
yaoyao- I think that in most ID schools you will find that the teachers are not on the cutting edge of technique. Most guys I know picked up their skills and techniques from professional internships. So China is not that different from the rest of the world
ya, you are right ,Masterblaster, i need to get more in some projects…only in this way can i learn more about the technik, 
thank you so much for your advice……
I’m working in China since 6 years and from my past experience, i can said that chinese student have a very strong computer skill but lack of drawing ability (for most of them). They are not aware of the design process and have not enough trend, history… knowledge. But as all of you said, they can learn so fast. This is certainly their most impressive skill.
For the time being, China miss of a good education system for this sector. And that the key point of the success.
hi hyltom, I agree! Its often the result of producing designers that industrys want, not what industry needs. Worst i have seen designers designing in the 3D program!
China in most parts, has a strong manufacturing and engineering background, thus the skills learnt all lean towards that direction. It will take a while to realise the importants of the hand drawn sketch.
i don’t think chinese are that stupid.
I am a chinese student major in ID. Almost all of my classmates want to go abroad to get further education in design.
Going abroad is a good idea for everyone. Staying at home is a guarantee for staying close-minded and stale. For everyone, no matter which country.
I don’t think we can just say "chinese student good or not"simply.
Because the person is different from one to one. It is true not only in china but in other countries in the world.
hello!~everyone! i am a student of qiananming .he is our ID teacher he’s pretty good and i think he’s view point is totally right .most of our teacher are not really understand what is design. and i doubted that they teacher us just for the salary. some of them are assignment machine. they never taught us how to design and how to think.to make things worse. some of them are very arrogant ï¼these disappointed us deeply~~~i don’t want to say any more.
I am doing a e-survey about Chinese design and education.
I would be appricate if any students in Greater China(mainland, Hong Kong and Macau) and Taiwan can participate.
The data can let us know students’ comments and their needs.
Available at
http://ess.ntu.ac.uk/sutton/formfiles/n0132286/chinesedesignedu.htm
Thanks.
interesting thread.
I was reading the ranking list of the world’s best ID schools (business week)
and I recalled 2 schools from China on that list.
I was thinking: this is very good progress considering China only open their doors in 1978. Personally I think China’s ID education could shine through despite it may be just the tiny minority. If you see how they churn out fashion, graphics and interior designs you could see their potential to reach world class standards. Further one should consider the many students sent overseas to Europe and the US to learn. Surely they are not swamping every design school. But you don’t need a whole Tsunami of Chinese students to train the thousands in the mainland. With the appetite they have for learning, I am sure they will pick up very fast.
Teaching in Hong Kong I see it this way. Chinese design is okay but is just starting to develop it’s own visual vocabulary. Up until now it has mostly been copying the visual vocabulary of the west and Japan, which they also see as western.
From both a few of my students and and some from the PRC I am starting to see some interesting forms and also decorative styles that appear to have promise.
I used to think like masterblaster - there must be some good designers somewhere… Since trying to open a design office in China, reviewing many 100’s of portfolios and countless interviews, i subscribed to the slightly altered notion that if 100% are bad, then it doesn’t matter how many they graduate…
It turns out that the very few that i thought seemed to show some promise - were all western educated. if you need to review dozens of designers to find a good one in the usa, think massively larger scales (i’m guessing 10 x to 100x) to find that same caliber designer in china (if it’s possible).
I lay the blame for this on the educational system - which has often been described to me as “don’t dare think for yourself!” or put another way, “do it exactly like you’re told, and no other way” which i think must be stifling the creativity and problem solving abilities at some basic level. it would be as difficult as a western educated designer to do something exactly the way someone tells them to do it, when they know there’s a better way.
another way to think about this, is how many chinese educated marketing people would you hire to market in the usa? the problem has some similarities - in that it is difficult enough when you belong to the same culture - but quite a bit more difficult when your only exposure is through media. I’ve seen some chinese movies, but i don’t pretend that this qualifies me as understanding chinese modern culture… do you know the most commonly quoted media reference i’ve heard? Apparently “sex in the city” is huge in china due to the number of people telling me about american culture using that show as a reference.
I’m sure that many people thought the same of design in japan 20-30 years ago, and it seems that design has developed there - so at some point, why not china?
enough ramblings… Maybe this is a very western centric viewpoint - perhaps from a chinese viewpoint they have wonderful designers? it would be interesting to hear more chinese student/teacher/professional viewpoints…
agree largely on what is being said.
an open environment creates innovation.
what I would like to add is that I see big promise in designs that uses the creative synergies of western and eastern thinking.
there is plenty to extract from asian cultures that last like at least 5000 years in history. The colours, the forms and interesting innovations that uses simple mechanisms could bring up wonders in design.
quick draw here.
pls don’t use simple word to describe the Chinese design student either the education system of design.
design in China is just the baby step, but baby can grow up quickly.
for me, 2 year work experiences in CMF(color, material, finishing), living local, studying local and now working local,
from my short experience meeting with the local designers, they give me the image that just sitting around their table, working all the day without thinking same situation as the university student. They need time to look around and find the detail and fun in the atmosphere they live.
They must get the real feeling from everyone’s daily life, not their simpla life.
These days I have the biz trip to Korea, when I walking in the street, I really interested in observing the people passing by me. you can feel the pain from the high heel shoes, you can see the exciting mood of their nitght party schedule, it’s really the interesting thing that we can observe. That is also the thing I want to tell to China designers.