About the Journal
ZHUANGSHI is an academic journal that boasts comprehensive strengths in artistic design. It is sponsored by the Academy of Arts & Design of Tsinghua University, covering studies on graphic design, product design, exhibition design, information design, architectural design, environmental design, furniture design, textile design, fashion design, craft arts, public art and theoretical research.
ZHUANGSHI stands out eye-catching among China’s art publications as the first and foremost academic journal dedicated to craft arts and design. The title itself exhibits a cultural richness in meaning, which by tradition refers to all the aesthetic needs and impulses in people’s life. The journal made the debut as early as 1958 when its priority was immediately given to the promotion of everyday beauty by forwarding the cause of craft arts and artistic design, and the establishment of art theories. It was then characterized by cultural researches on tradition and folk customs, and meanwhile served as a window open to the outside world where foreign exhibitions and artworks were frequently introduced. Initiators of the journal, such as Zhang Guangyu, Zhang Ding and Wu Lao, acted prominently as pioneers in exploring modern Chinese design and design education. The editorial committee comprised by no exception well-known figures in the field, inclusive of Ding Cong, Deng Jie, An Xingcun, Shen Congwen, Shen Fuwen, Xu Zhenpeng, Chen Zhi Fo, Chen Wanli, Chen Shuliang, Cheng Shangren, Mei Jianying, Yang Shihui, Lei Guiyuan, Wang Jiashu, Qiuling, among others. In such manners, the journal offered texts that were as resourceful as they are now historical, making it second to none when it comes to define how craft arts and design have progressed in the New China and what legacies have been left in the changing of times.
In the new phase, ZHUANGSHI pursues a contemporary outlook on the world while keeping its touches on China’s domestic needs. It collects first-hand materials, reflects ongoing design practices and phenomena, and organizes theoretical thinking of frontier issues. Starting from 2007, the journal has featured in each issue a special scheme ranging from Chinese Animation, Design and its Survival, Design for Olympic Games, Design for People’s Livelihood, Design Ethics, Historicism, to Contemporary Craft Arts, Festival Design, Design: Confronting Crisis, High-Tech & Low-Tech, National Image, and others. It insightfully deals with heated topics and frontier issues in light of theoretical studies, discussions, interviews, researches and investigations. In 2008, the journal paid tribute through serial columns to “the Fifty People” and “the Fifty Events” that have shaped contemporary Chinese design in one way or another, which attained to a wide-scope examination of the history of contemporary Chinese design. In 2009, a serial column on “China’s Creative Industry Park” was set in the field-study fashion to look into the operation models and the environments of the design-related industry parks that were built in different places round the country, which offered objective assessments of the nationwide upsurge in creative industries.
Among other columns, Information Space responds in time to current exhibitions, conferences and contests; Scholars’ Inquiry and the bilingual Overseas Trends contain the latest academic thoughts; Contemporary Masters opens interviews with uniquely achieved people in the field of artistic design; Exhibition in Paper illustrates the recent laudable exhibitions; History & Theory Horizon and Design Theory reveal China’s academic studies on design history and its theories; Case Study and Design Practice present critical observations on specific phenomena, artworks and working experiences currently contributed by the field; Teaching Archive and College Highlights survey China’s current design education; Folk Customs & Folk Arts investigates into customs and craft arts of a folk China; Essays and Stories take an easy way to tell of designs that surround our life and their memorable events. On the whole, ZHUANGSHI is a considerably readable journal that is highly-valued academically and documentarily.
ZHUANGSHI is indexed by many standard subject bibliographies. It is listed by Beijing University Library, the nation’s most authoritative book appraisal center, in its widely acknowledged Core Journals of China. It is included in the National Library’s Ten Core Art Journals of China, and is highly recommended by the National News and Publishing Bureau as a member of China Journal Formation and the National Key Social Science Periodicals. It also singles itself out for being China’s only art journal awarded with the National Periodical Prize for three successive times, an eloquent manifestation of its surpassing qualities as a promising art journal, thus is selected by Chinese Ministry of Education into CSSCI (Chinese Social Science Citation Index) Source Periodicals. According to the 2008 Chinese Academic Journal Comprehensive Citation Annual Report, ZHUANGSHI’s impact factor, a measure of how many citations a journal generates in other works, was 0.224 in the year 2007 ranking the highest of any art journal of China.
ZHUANGSHI has correspondents from many nations outside China, including France, Britain, Japan, German, Finland and Singapore. Its insights and creativity is drawn to various publics by distributors across the nation with subscribers from various design-related corporations, organizations and institutions. It appeals not just to professionals and intellectuals, but to interested companies, amateurs and general readers alike.
