We always aspire to cast off the incorrect perception of "made-in-China" products, and we want to help Chinese furniture become some of the finest the world, said Tian Wanliang, Secretary General of the Information Advisory Committee of China Building Decoration Association.

Tian said the Chinese design's debut at the Milan Furniture Fair was a good beginning. He suggested Chinese furniture companies should pay more attention to product originality and quality, rather than focusing on profit and growth.

In 2013, more than 20 famous Chinese designers took tea tables, chairs and tea sets they designed to the Milan Furniture Fair, again, presenting the unique charm of Chinese design to the world.

East-West exchanges

From September 26 to October 3, Zhu held a personal design exhibition at the Beijing Design Week. At the exhibition, the furniture, porcelain, furs and other products he designed were displayed.

As a designer and entrepreneur, Zhu has paid particular attention to exchanges and cooperation with domestic and foreign peers. He has worked with designers from a number of countries and they co-produced products.

Zhu and Danish designer Lone Olsen jointly designed Lone Chairs. Strips of fur decorated the chairs, accenting the natural beauty of the wood and highlighting the simple but attractive form of the furniture.

Zingana, a precious timber produced in West Africa, is Zhu's favorite raw material. "Its light yellow texture, dark brown grain, and especially its oblique shape make it very, very pretty," Zhu said.

After finishing his schooling in Australia, Zhu returned to China and began to explore the best way to express the beauty of Zingana. He set up a company to study Zingana and develop related products and created his furniture brand Opal. He has successfully designed and developed a series of furniture products with a blend of modern and traditional Chinese style. At the end of last year, he launched another new brand.

Though Zhu is known for his unique understanding and extraordinary design in the furniture industry, recently he seems to have fallen in love with fur from Kopenhagen, as much as he loves wood. Through cross-over design, Zhu has combined Zen in an oriental context with the vitality of nature in the West.

Zhu went to Denmark in 2010 and it was more fate than a coincident that he could work with Danish company Kopenhagen Fur, he said. This all began with the Y-shaped chair created by Danish master designer Hans Wegner, inspired by Chinese furniture from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Zhu was amazed how accurately and subtly a Western designer could express oriental charm. He began to try combining wood and fur, two different but complementary materials.

Nurturing talent

Zhu is also the president of Wenzhou Furniture College in east China's Zhejiang Province. He thinks of original designs as key to the development of China's furniture industry.

Yet, furniture designers are in short supply in China. Preliminary industrial statistics show that there are more than 30,000 furniture producers in China, which hire fewer than 3,000 designers. This means that there is only one designer for every 10 furniture companies.

Worse still, existing designers vary widely in their skills. Most of them are no more than draftsmen that can imitate others' work, while experienced and creative designers are extremely rare.

The furniture industry began to attach importance to product design. "Previously companies focused on selling products, now, they seek product innovation through cooperation with designers," Zhu said. Due to the shortage of talented domestic designers, big furniture firms have to shell out money to hire foreign designers.

Realizing the importance of furniture designers, training agencies and vocational schools, especially those in big furniture producing provinces such as Guangdong and Zhejiang, have also started to offer relevant courses.

In Wenzhou Furniture College, students apprentice with masters and learn about modern design concepts. Zhu has compiled a 60,000-word design textbook for the students.

Zhu often told his students that a designer is the combination of artist and artisan, and a good designer must first be a good artisan. Through internship, students put their knowledge into practice.

Email us at: tangyuankai@bjreview.com