A Delegation from the University of Paderborn in Germany Visited Tsinghua (Qingdao) Academy of Arts and Science Innovation Research
On the afternoon of November 22, 2023, a delegation led by Eva-Maria Lydia Seng, Chief Professor of the History Department of the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Paderborn in Germany, visited Tsinghua (Qingdao) Academy of Arts and Science Innovation Research (TASA). WANG Jiansong, Vice President of Tsinghua (Qingdao) Academy of Arts and Science Innovation Research, and LIU Weidong, Secretary of the Party Branch and Assistant to the President, accompanied the delegation during the visit and participated in the discussion with them.
The experts visited TASA Art and Science Experience Center's "Where Art Meets Science · A Better Future is Created" International Art & Science Collaborative Innovation Works Exhibition, and the International Industrial Design Center's "Sowing and Sprouting, Ripening and Harvesting–Special Exhibition for the Anniversary of the Founding of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University".
At the meeting, WANG Jiansong introduced the founding philosophy of TASA and its innovative achievements in the fields of integration of arts and sciences, inheritance and protection of intangible cultural heritage, especially the development history and experience of the Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center for ICH Safeguarding. He said that Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University (AADTHU) and BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd. jointly established the Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center for ICH Safeguarding to protect, research, and promote intangible cultural heritage and serve ICH inheritors through centralized teaching, exhibitions and performances. After joining the cooperation, TASA took advantage of its industrial service platform to promote the market-oriented transformation of intangible cultural heritage works, and guided and helped intangible cultural heritage inheritors to obtain resources and channels for revitalizing intangible cultural heritage in a "learning by doing" model, so that ICH inheritors can acquire self-development ability and promote the integration of intangible cultural heritage into modern life. WANG Jiansong also pointed out that TASA will continue to leverage Tsinghua University’s discipline and talent advantages, as well as Qingdao’s location and industrial advantages, to contribute to cultural exchanges and design innovation between China and foreign countries.
ZHANG Yazheng, a member of TASA’s design team, introduced to the visiting experts the innovative works of the Tsinghua BMW Innovation Center for ICH Safeguarding, as well as a series of exhibitions, quality lectures and other activities, and showed them the book Beautiful China: A Collection of Creativity and Innovation Cases in Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection edited by TASA and published by Tsinghua University Press. The book collects the stories of cooperation between 29 highly innovative and representative intangible cultural heritage inheritors and AADTHU tutors. Through interviews with the inheritors and comments from the tutors, it vividly records the process, experience and insights of the cooperation of "designer + intangible cultural heritage inheritors" in detail, which reflects the thinking, exploration and innovative practices of ICH inheritors in recent years in terms of consumer insights, product design, marketing and other aspects in the process of "intangible cultural heritage entering modern life".
Prof. Eva-Maria Lydia Seng highly appreciated the innovative activities and practical results of TASA. She introduced the current situation of German design education and industry, and shared the Bauhaus design concept and Germany’s experience in developing the intangible heritage industry. She hoped to establish a long-term cooperation with TASA. By organizing exchanges between enterprises and university students from the two countries and holding transnational achievement exhibitions, the two parties can integrate their respective advantageous resources, promote the Sino-German design exchanges, and create new opportunities for the integration of Eastern and Western cultures.
In the future, TASA will actively respond to the national call to promote high-quality cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises and universities, facilitate exchanges between China’s excellent culture and world civilizations, and build a global design innovation industry ecology and cooperation platform.
