Designing a Life: A Cross-Cultural Journey

by Kai-Yin Lo

Overview

“Designing a Life: A Cross-Cultural Journey” tells the inspiring story of Kai-Yin Lo, a determined woman born to a wealthy Hong Kong family who had to build her own future following an abrupt change in the family's fortunes. After a first job at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hong Kong, she made her way to New York, working at Time Inc. to establish a new life. Encouraged by her first collection being accepted by Cartier New York, she employed talent, innovation and determination to become a designer of international renown, respected as an ambassador for cross-cultural exchange in art, design and thought. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789887963837
Publisher:	Blacksmith Books
Publication date:	01/30/2020
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Kai-Yin Lo’s work as a celebrated jewelry designer, curator and historian melds the cultural heritages of East and West. A visiting professor at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, she is a specialist in cross-culture and editor of five influential books on aspects of Chinese art, design and living environment, ranging from Chinese furniture and living patterns to Song ceramics and contemporary Hong Kong design culture. A recipient of the Hong Kong Design Centre’s prestigious “World’s Leading Chinese Designer” award in 2007, Kai-Yin brings breadth of insight and vision to the worlds of art, design, culture and business.

Author's previous books

1. “Classical and Vernacular Chinese Furniture in the Living Environment” (co-editor), ISBN 9781878529442

2. “Bright as Silver, White as Snow - Chinese White Ceramics from late Tang to Yuan Dynasty” (editor), ISBN 9789627502395

3. “Living Heritage - Vernacular Environment in China” (co-editor), ISBN 9789628555413

4. “House Home Family - Living and Being Chinese” (co-editor), ISBN 9780824829537

5. “Hong Kong: Creative Ecologies – The Shaping of a Design Culture” (editor), ISBN 9789889778446

Table of Contents

Foreword by Jane Rapley

Prologue: Cartier New York

Part I
1. Family and Growing Up
2. Our Big House
3. Old Hong Kong and Wanchai
4. U.K. Education
5. Change in Family Fortunes
6. Return to Hong Kong
7. Off to New York
8. Building the Business
9. Harmony Through Asymmetry
10. Making a Name in Japan
11. The 1990s and Beyond

Part II
12. Furniture in the Living Environment
13. House, Home, Family
14. Bright as Silver, White as Snow
15. Wu Guanzhong and Xu Bing at the British Museum
16. My Silk Road
17. Furthering Creative Visions

Part III
18. A Rich Tapestry
19. Epilogue

Afterword by Victor Lo
 

Editorial Reviews

Kai-Yin is an amazing self-made designer and self-made businesswoman. She is selfless in promoting design and culture, with a totally cross-culture approach. She is very Asian and very global at the same time. Kai-Yin is truly a cultural ambassador and has invested much of her time and energy to foster exchange globally and locally, and to promote good design, art and culture as core to new economic futures and societal well-being.

Victor Lo

Kai-Yin is a polymath and a phenomenon, having seamlessly juggled an analytical career as a scholar, historian, teacher and editor, with the artistic and imaginative flair of an amazing jewellery and accessory designer and ceramic artist.

Thomas Heatherwick

Kai-Yin Lo has been a dedicated lobbyist for culture in Hong Kong for many years, tirelessly championing the city’s growth as the Asian center of the art market, promoting the appreciation and value of good design, and the importance of creative thinking within the education system. A passion for history, together with her fascination with the interplay of cultures East and West, are the backdrop to her life and give this book its unique perspective. They inform and define all her activities and they are the threads that form the fabric of Kai-Yin’s life journey. We are invited to join her in the highs and lows and twists and turns of the life of an independent Chinese woman in the global world of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Jane Rapley

As a longtime admirer of Kai-Yin's design jewelry, I am impressed by her passion, drive and commitment in promoting design. Her creativity reflects full appreciation of history and respect for different cultures.

Carrie Lam

Kai-Yin Lo is a creative tour de force whose jewelry designs drawn from Chinese traditional design principles were at the forefront of a reappraisal of traditional Chinese culture. She also seeks to share her interests with others through the philanthropic support of dialogues and talks that foster an understanding of new issues in Asian culture. These have included some of the most important cultural leaders of our time such as Xu Bing, Tan Dun, and Shen Wei.

Melissa Chiu

Kai-Yin Lo has proven herself to be an outstanding artistic and intellectual entrepreneur who blends harmoniously the aesthetic and the practical. The Asia Society on both sides of the Pacific has benefited from her generosity of spirit and cultural expressions.

Ronnie C. Chan

From being a pioneering designer of jewellery and accessories, Kai-Yin Lo has now become a designer of world recognition. Using her extensive knowledge of European and Chinese history, she has blended in art form the cultures of East and West. She has done this at a time when our connected world, particularly in the fields of politics and business, recognizes more and more the importance of the creative industries in enhancing cross-cultural understanding and international relations.

Sir Henry Keswick