A tale of oriental inspiration
22/4/2005 9:36
Shanghai Daily News
Furniture retailers were
recently surprised to find modern, western-style furniture in a suburban Chinese
carpenter's workshop in Changjing Town, Jiangyin City.
What's more, all of
the furniture was made to the design of the 72-year-old famous Finnish furniture
designer Yrjo Kukkapuro.
The amazing story traces back to 1998, when
Kukkapuro visited China in search of oriental inspiration.
It was in that
year that he had a chance meeting with Yin Hongqiang, the rural carpenter, and
was moved by Yin's simple but delicately carved furniture.
Kukkapuro was even
happier when he found Yin's workshop was just what he had dreamt about -
equipped with nothing but the tools used for hand-made furniture.
After that
exciting discovery, the world's famous furniture designer started his
seven-year-long cooperation with the rural Chinese carpenter.
Since then, the
modern furniture designer has visited Jiangyin City twice a year to discuss
techniques with Yin and give him his fresh designs.
And the carpenter
finished all of Kukkapuro's assignments, strictly following his
requirements.
Kukkapuro-styled furniture began to pile high in Yin's workshop
and the two men's prolific co-work was finally discovered by furniture
retailers.
They then descended on Jiangyin City to battle for exclusive
rights to the furniture.
Born in 1933, Kukkapuro is regarded as one of the
foremost furniture designers in the 20th century.
He took a two-year tenure,
from 1978 to 1980, as the president of the University of Art and Design
Helsinki.
He toured the world to give talks from 1980 to 1999, which enabled
him to visit the countries including Britain, Australia and Italy.
In 1997,
he arrived in China and began his amazing adventure in the ancient oriental
country.
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