The DFA Design For Asia Awards recently announced the winners of its highest honors for 2023, with internationally renowned artist, designer, and co-founder of the “Shang Xia” brand, Jiang Qiong Er, receiving the “DFA World’s Outstanding Chinese Designer Award.” This award recognizes her exceptional contribution to the fusion of Eastern aesthetics with Western beauty and innovation, facilitating the exchange of ideas and culture between the East and West.
Other honorees include Kenya Hara, recipient of the DFA Lifetime Achievement Award, and Victor Lo, who won the DFA Design Leadership Award.
Established in 2003 by the Hong Kong Design Centre, the DFA Design For Asia Awards aim to acknowledge outstanding design leaders and excellent design projects with commercial success or influence within Asia. The “DFA World’s Outstanding Chinese Designer Award” specifically honors Chinese designers of international renown for their global contributions.
Jiang Qiong’er graduated from Tongji University in Shanghai and the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. In 2009, she collaborated with the Hermès Group to establish “Shang Xia,” blending the essences of Eastern and Western cultures. Her unique design language, merging ancient and modern elements, has also been instrumental in the revival of traditional Chinese craftsmanship. Her works are permanently housed in world-renowned museums, including the British Museum, V&A Museum, Musée Guimet in France, and the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
Jiang’s significant contributions to art, design, and cultural exchange between China and the world have earned her numerous accolades, including the “Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters” and the “Knight of the National Order of Merit” from France, and the “Knight of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity.” She was also named among the “50 Influential Figures in 50 Years of Sino-French Relations” and listed in Forbes as one of the 25 most influential Chinese in the global fashion industry.
Upon receiving the award, Jiang Qiong’er expressed, “Winning the DFA World Outstanding Chinese Designer Award is an affirmation of my artistic endeavors. I believe my mission in this world is to connect China’s excellence with the world through contemporary design and embrace the future. I firmly believe in the power of creating the future within tradition, the power of ‘love breeds love, beauty breeds beauty,’ and the power of time. I am passionate about my responsibility to showcase the essence of Chinese culture to the world and to help Chinese brands and institutions reach global recognition, as well as to help the West understand contemporary China.”
In anticipation of the 60th anniversary of Sino-French diplomatic relations in 2024, Jiang Qiong’er has been invited by the Musée Guimet in France to create a giant art exhibition, “The Vessel of Time,” on its façade and in four key locations within the museum. This exhibition will be a journey through a thousand years, where Jiang will blend the spirit of ancient Chinese civilization with technology and art, invoking primal forces to build a “spiritual cave” for the 21st-century human community.
| Source: Official Press Release
| Image Credit: Press Release
| Editor: LeZhi
