
Modern Asian Design provides a comprehensive introduction to the development of Asian design in the modern period both tracing historical threads & offering a theoretical framework within which to chart the history of design in Asia Rather than a singular " Asian history" this book presents a series of studies centred on trade routes colonial relationships regional networks & cross-cultural exchanges Modern Asian Design builds on existing resources beyond design history in an effort to map the field focusing particularly on relations between Asia & the West & also across Asian design cultures Opening with a brief overview of trade & exchange networks in the 17th & 18th centuries the bulk of this study comprises analysis of the development of modern design in Asia during the later 19th & early 20th centuries a period of rapid modernisation The book's final two chapters bring these central ideas into a contemporary & highly relevant context