Asia University (AU) held an online international conference and workshop on “The Power of Asian Design” jointly at the National Library of Public Information and the AU campus from April 22 to April 24. Several design masters from Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Italy and other countries were invited to give lectures, to lead workshops and to guide local students in their independent studies. AU’s Department of Visual Communication Design was assigned to host this annual international design competition, sponsored by the MOE Scholarship Program in Arts and Design. Professor Jeffrey Tsai, President of Asia University, stated in his opening remarks, “AU is honored to serve as a platform on which different designs from different cultures can interact with each other and bring out more powerful influence on our ways of life in the future.”

For this year’s conference and workshop, Professor Johann Geiger from the Department of Industrial Design, Da-Yeh University, Mr. Yasumasa Ikeda, Representative of OMIJIKA Co., Ltd (Omijika Mame), Mr. KF Lim, the chief person in charge of Bilateral Design, Malaysia, and Associate Professor Alessandro Martinelli from Chinese Culture University came to AU campus to share their expertise and insight in design with students.

Chair Professor Pang-Soong Lin of Asia University, the host of this conference, observed that in the past nine years, “The Power of Asian Design” has invited 59 internationally renowned designers from 20 different countries to Taiwan. This year’s conference was held online because of the Covid-19 pandemic; however, the participants showed equally fervent passion and learned from these invited speakers online despite the geographical distance. Three workshops were held under the titles of “Visual Communication Design,” “Product Design” and “Architecture and Interior Design.” Over 100 students from 19 different universities took part in these workshops and produced 41 works at the end of the conference.

Chair Professor Jun-Hong Chen, the co-host of this year’s conference and workshop, mentioned that the online workshop was much more difficult than the physical one. Students had to spend more time in online discussion, but they were able to come up with some promising results after the two-day workshop. The exchange among different cultures stimulated some constructive and innovative ideas in design.

Professor Sheng-min Hsieh from the Department of Visual Communication Design pointed out that 20 students from the group of “Architecture and Landscape Design” collaborated to build a house model overcoming all the difficulty to bring different design thinking modes into a unified whole. The excellence of their final product further proved the spirit of their cooperation and the success of this year’s conference and workshop.

Mr. Lin from National Kaohsiung Normal University expressed his gratitude to all the international designers for their guidance so that he and his partners can complete the project on time and with quality. Mr. Chen from Asia University also mentioned that the workshop provided him great opportunities to learn some compelling ideas and styles from these international masters in design.

Chair Professor Pang-Soong Lin concluded the conference and workshop by saying, “I hope the project of ‘The Power of Asian Design’ can bring new ideas to the studies of design in Taiwan, and can therefore unify the Asian power and exert its influence on global trend in design.”