Design History Society Student Travel Award Report: Following a Chinese paper trail

13 July 2015 -

With the support of a Design History Society student travel award I was recently able to spend two weeks in China on the trail of Chinese wallpapers. Characterised by large scale hand painted designs of birds, flowers and Chinese figures of Lilliputian proportions set in idealised natural landscapes Chinese wallpapers offer a distinctive aesthetic which played a central role in chinoiserie; an aesthetic which gave popular definition and material expression to European interactions with Asia in the early modern period. Made from the late 17th century onwards, evidence (or rather lack of it) suggests that Chinese wallpapers of this type were never used in Chinese interiors, but were developed specifically for export markets in Europe and North America, where they satisfied a growing demand for exotic luxury goods and romantic visions of the ‘Orient’. In addition, evidence of the craft workshops in Guangdong where they were once made has long since disappeared. In spite of this Chinese wallpapers are actually much more in evidence in China than one might expect. This is largely due to the present day production of export style Chinese wallpapers in China for a global market, but also in some smaller part due to increased popular and scholarly interest in Chinese export art in China.

Chinese wallpapers reached a peak in popularity in the second half of the 18th century, but continued to be exported to Europe and North America throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century. Today the market for reproduction 18th century Chinese export wallpapers and contemporary reinterpretations of them is strong within the market for luxury goods, particularly in America and Europe, but also in the Middle East and now, perhaps for the first time in China where Chinese export style wallpapers can be found in private residences, restaurants, luxury boutiques, hotels, casinos and private clubs. The continued production and appeal of Chinese wallpapers raises interesting questions about how this visually distinctive cultural hybrid may be read in different cultural contexts and what meanings and associations Chinese wallpapers might convey.

De Gournay showroom, Shanghai
Credit line: Image reproduced courtesy of De Gournay

My PhD research investigates the historical development, far reaching impact and enduring appeal of Chinese wallpapers. My thesis is structured around three case studies which focus on different geographic locales and particular moments in the extensive history of Chinese wallpaper. These studies examine the production, trade, use and alternative cultural perceptions of Chinese wallpapers in Britain during the 18th century, when Chinese wallpapers reached a peak in popularity among the wealthy European elite, America during the first half of the 20th century when Chinese wallpapers enjoyed a revival in popularity under the auspices of a new generation of interior decorators and thirdly, addresses the details of their continued production and recent adoption in China today. Central to my thesis is an exploration of the complex identities and hybrid nature of Chinese wallpaper, including investigations of the key factors which influenced their design, application and perceived social and cultural significance.

Whilst in China I was able to further my research in a number of areas including; investigating the production and use of export style Chinese wallpapers in Chinese interiors today and local perceptions of it, as well as exploring comparative traditions of Chinese interior decoration.

Although it seems that Chinese wallpapers of the type exported to Europe and America were never used in China, I wanted to use the opportunity whilst I was in China to find out more about historic Chinese interiors and to look for clues to the possible inspiration for Chinese export wallpapers. I visited two restored 19th century merchant’s houses in Macau were I was able to experience and observe the interior spaces and the decorative elements of typical Macanese houses belonging to the wealthy middle class. The walls were plain and painted white and the decorative highlights in both houses were the carved wood doors and lintels; these reflected common designs of birds and flowers which have traditionally inhabited a wide variety of Chinese media.

A particular highlight of my research trip was a visit to the recently restored Juanqinzhai, the Emperor Qianlong’s retirement pavilion located in the Qianlong gardens at the Forbidden City in Beijing. The surprisingly diminutive and intimate interior of this pavilion is characterised by exquisitely detailed decoration; a showcase for 18th century Chinese craft skills. The centre piece is the theatre hall which features a floor to ceiling hand painted trompe l’oeil mural on silk, depicting a palace garden, seen through a latticed bamboo fence on a glorious spring day. This mural offers a striking comparison to Chinese export style wallpapers in terms of format and effect (the quality of the mural painting surpasses any Chinese export wallpaper). The mural comprises 26 panels of painted silk mounted on paper and they are hung on a wooden lattice frame work very similar to the methods employed to hang Chinese export wallpapers in 18th century Europe. They form a continuous panorama which dominates the interior space. The mural was completed in 1779 and was created by Chinese court artists working under the auspices of Italian Jesuit artists employed at the Qing court. In this way Juanqinzhai offers great insight into the ways in which reciprocal Sino–European cultural exchange was influencing the material landscape in both China and Europe during the 18th century. Juanqinzhai’s interiors also feature block printed wallpaper with small scale repeating designs such as a stylised dragon roundel. This kind of wallpaper was in evidence throughout the Forbidden City and I was able to see the woodblocks used to make this paper during a fascinating tour of the Palace museum conservation studios led by paintings conservator Mr Yang Zehua.

Whilst I was in China I wanted to take the opportunity to visit Guangzhou, the key Chinese trade port through which all trade with Europe was conducted between 1757 and 1842 and where many of the decorative goods exported, including wallpaper were made. While there is little evidence of this influential trade to be found in the fabric of this modern city today, Guangdong provincial museum offers a rich collection of Chinese export art and local craft. To my knowledge it is the only museum in China currently collecting Chinese export wallpapers. I was particularly interested to see a set of 12, 18th century wallpaper panels which were once hung in Harewood House near Leeds, where another set of 18th century Chinese wallpaper still hangs. The wallpaper was acquired at auction in London in 2011 and is presented at the museum as an important part of the local history of this region and one which reflects local craft traditions as well as global markets. During this visit to the museum archives I was able to interview curators about the museum’s collections of export art and public perceptions of it, allowing useful insight into current attitudes towards Chinese ‘export art’ in China.

One of the main aims of my trip to China was to visit the China Club in Beijing to examine the interiors in detail, meet the manager Tony Chiu to talk about the use of Chinese export style wallpapers in the China Club’s interiors and find out more about client reactions to it. The China Club in Beijing, (like its Hong Kong counterpart) is a private members club. It is housed in an historic building dating to the 17th century, once the home of Prince Xun, a Chinese prince descended from the Kangxi emperor and is one of Beijing’s few surviving princely mansions. Designed throughout by Sir David Tang, the club’s interiors are characterised by his signature East Asian eclecticism. What is particularly striking about this interior is the idiosyncratic juxtaposition of traditional Chinese architecture and furniture with Chinese export style wallpapers. The China Club will form one of the key case studies within my thesis, opening up investigations of the use of export style Chinese wallpapers in this and other contemporary Chinese contexts, asking what concepts and ideas are driving new markets for Chinese wallpaper in China and what messages they convey in Chinese contexts. Are they understood as signifiers of Chinese culture or are they seen simply as symbols of luxury, apart from any specific cultural associations?

In addition to the China Club in Beijing I also visited the China Club in Hong Kong and casinos in Macau as well as restaurants, luxury boutiques and hotels in Hong Kong, Macau, Shanghai and Beijing which enabled me to form a broad impression of the varied use contexts of export style Chinese wallpapers in China today. The decorative effects achieved varied widely, displaying a range of cultural inflections and evocations, but the common theme was unequivocally one of luxury and exclusivity.

I interviewed interior designers in Hong Kong and visited two showrooms owned by London based wallpaper purveyor de Gournay, which recently opened in Shanghai and Beijing, in order to find out more about the market for Chinese wallpapers in China today. At the showrooms I interviewed sales staff about client preferences and perceptions of Chinese wallpaper and I was also able to find out more about their use in residential projects which were otherwise difficult to access or learn about. From these interviews it is clear that there is a small, but significant market for Chinese wallpapers in China today and that there are clear design preferences within this market. Wallpapers featuring human figures are generally eschewed in favour of pared down bird and flower designs, often featuring flowers which hold particular cultural and symbolic meaning in China. It was also evident that very few people know anything about chinoiserie or Chinese export art and that even the concept of wallpaper is new to most people in China; interior designers are generally the driving force behind their use. Whilst I was able to glean useful information about the preferences of Chinese clients and the trends in Chinese interiors these interviews also made me aware of the complexities involved in attempting to extrapolate information about a specific cultural viewpoint, which is inflected by innumerable variable factors and has led me to consider further the need to problematise the idea of the Chinese client or Chinese audience within my thesis.

Another key aim of my trip was to visit two workshops currently making Chinese export style wallpaper. I wanted to find out what kinds of tools, materials and processes were being used to make Chinese wallpapers today and compare them with what is known about historic Chinese craft practices and materials in an attempt to re-connect this global commodity with a local Chinese context. These site visits allowed first hand observation of production processes and materials as well as an important opportunity to interview staff about the product and find out about the specific terminology used to talk about the wallpapers and the associated materials and processes.

Collectively, these research visits allowed me to gather essential information about the production and use of Chinese wallpaper in China today and enabled me to build on my knowledge of Chinese interiors past and present. The information gathered will make an invaluable and original contribution to my research.

I am very grateful to the Design History Society for providing funding support for this research trip, without which it would certainly not have been possible. I would also like to thank the AHRC and the Gardner Travel Fund for their generous financial support. I am grateful to staff at the Palace museum, Beijing and Guangdong provincial museum for allowing me access to their collections and to Tony Chiu for arranging access to the China Club in Beijing. I would also like to thank staff at De Gournay in London, Shanghai, Beijing and Wuxi, staff at Fromental in London and Wuxi and Mike Gracie at Gracie, New York for providing support, advice and personal introductions, all of which made this trip so fruitful.

Anna Wu, May, 2015.

AHRC PhD Candidate,
History of Design, V&A/Royal College of Art, London.