Research On The Molding Design Of Household Electric Appliance In China During 1949-1979

In this paper,we study on the molding design of Chinese household electric appliances from 1949 to 1979,the relatively closed period of industrial production under the planned economic system in China.Household electric appliance is the representative one of the various early industrial products in China.And its development has experienced the development of science and technology,the commercial process,the changes of national economic system,the improvement of people’s living standard and the social trend of thought changing.The study duration can better reflect the localization,the design and the production process of household electric appliances under China’s industrial development model by removing the influence caused by the foreign production lines after 1980 s in Chinese economic reform,pointing out the influence of peripheral industries on household electric appliance modeling,as well as the improvement and the inhibition of the modeling evolution due to the overall developing level of social industry.Based on the historical development of Chinese household electric appliances and comparison with the world’s industry development during the same period,choosing household appliances including the audio and video electric appliances,the power-driven appliances and lighting appliances,which appeared earlier with large production and mainly influenced by national scientific and technological factors,technological conditions,relevant supporting industries,production enterprise system and national economic system,we analyzed the cause and the evolution track of the household appliance modeling in China.After investigating and studying on a large number of the existing household electric appliances in the main producing areas,we have got a large sample.We studied the influencing factor of the epochal character,the manufacturability and the economic system according to the modeling source,the technology application,the crafts material and styles.It summed up the main developing clue from product modeling evolution:imitation,assembly of imported parts,assembly production,localization of the whole machine.The foreign production line invaded after the reform and opening-up,which caused the breakage of local household appliance product design.We analyzed opportunities and challenges of the times and comb the line of home electric appliances industry during the past 30 years in China.Based on the design origin,studying the design features,the advantages and the limits of different producers and comparing with the same kinds of products abroad,this article summarized and combed the modeling evolution of household electric appliances in China by taking radios,televisions,electric fans and electric lights as example.It showed the main development lines: one is “outside-in”,imitating foreign products and then realizing localization;the other is “top-down”,using the joint design and “satellite-factory” mode to popularize the household electric appliance modeling,as well as diversified forms of household electrical appliances by combining various era factors and the economic consumption limitation.