The red of traditional Chinese lacquer applied to chairs and armchairs with a contemporary profile, where traditional Chinese features are updated without losing their aesthetic impact: this is the main characteristic of the Ming seating collection designed by Chen Xiangjing and produced by Jing Yi Zhi International Furniture Supply, presented in the Cortile d’Onore of the Università degli Studi in Milan during Open Borders, the exhibition-event organized by Interni for the FuoriSalone.

The Ming collection represents the best summary of the perspective on design of Chen Xiangjing, the Chinese designer who has founded the studio Jing Design and the company Jing Yi Zhi International Furniture Supply, completing many projects for prestigious hotel chains and residential complexes in China.

Thirty years of activity, after studying in his country and the UK, have led him to formulate a precise theory of Chinese design, which according to Chen is an increasingly established reality that should be promoted and spread: “Traditional Chinese philosophy is the beacon that guides our design,” Chen says; “a connection exists between beauty, virtue and gentility of spirit, just as there is a connection between the activity of design and the universal dimension of nature, in which we are all immersed. As a result, the creation and production of furnishings is part of this great natural system.”

A holistic vision that has led Chen Xiangjing to search for the soul of authentically Chinese design in traditional forms and techniques, reinterpreted to respond to today’s lifestyle: “My way of understanding design is represented well by the Ming seating series, marked by a minimalist, balanced, harmonious structure, finished with the traditional process of red lacquer,” the designer continues. “In my vision red symbolizes nostalgia and reunion. But lacquer does not only have a symbolic value: it is a crafts process with very ancient roots in China (seven millennia); it is sustainable and helps to conserve the wood.”

The goal of Chen Xiangjing is to consolidate the authentically Chinese design language, “which is based on the traditions, culture and aesthetic sensibility of a country with thousands of years of history, still not sufficiently recognized on the international design scene.”

Text by Antonella Galli – Photo by Ludovica Mangini

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The designer Chen Xiangjing with his seating collections Ming and Jing, produced by Jing Yi Zhi international Furniture Supply, in the installation for Interni Open Borders. Mangini.
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The designer Chen Xiangjing with his seating collection Nian, produced by Jing Yi Zhi international Furniture Supply, in the installation for Interni Open Borders.
gallery gallery
The designer Chen Xiangjing with his seating collections Ming and Jing, produced by Jing Yi Zhi international Furniture Supply, in the installation for Interni Open Borders. Mangini.
gallery gallery
The designer Chen Xiangjing with his seating collection Nian, produced by Jing Yi Zhi international Furniture Supply, in the installation for Interni Open Borders.