Modern Furniture (wood) Development Study

There is few published information about the 19th century Chinese furniture.This paper focuses on Shanghai furniture from the time Shanghai opened to the west in 1840 up to the present, mainly before 1949 as Shanghai furniture plays an important role in the development of Chinese furniture.With the introduction of western culture ,various types of western furniture poured into shanghai and challenged Chinese furniture industry.There are many differences between Chinese tradition furniture and western furniture in respect of model,decoration,craft and space arranging.But after 1920s the western furniture in shanghai began to mix with Chines furniture step by step.Western furniture made in Shanghai used the local material and craft to make the western style furniture ,which led to the simplification of its original style.Shanghai tradition furniture absorbed many model elements from western furniture and employed the new material and adopted advanced technology to decorate furniture.In the process of westernization of shanghai tradition furniture and the orientalization of the western furniture in shanghai ,a new furniture form was created,which is called Shanghai Style furniture.The typical examples of Shanghai Style furniture are glass-bookcase,wardrobe,chest of drawers and dressing table.Combining Chinese tradition with western furniture factors and pursuing the fashion are the main characteristics of Shanghai Style furniture which belongs to one of the Shanghai style culture.The Shanghai Style furniture intimates the western furniture model then creates the new forms with additional functions.lt pioneers a new road to guide the Chinese furniture development.