Designing a beautiful China

When the nomadic people in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region set up a yurt, it takes much time and effort. However, designers have turned to new materials and technologies to create inflatable yurts that come in various shapes and sizes, but more importantly, take only 20 minutes to put up, says Gao Shiming, president of the China Academy of Art. He points to pictures that present the fruits of the project to develop a new model of contemporary grassland dwelling that explores the modernization of the humble yurt. Called A New Yurt System, the project is included in an exhibition at the Better China Study Center in the Shuangbai Study, a learning space for students at the Central Academy of the Culture and Tourism Administration in Beijing.

"Convenient and fashionable, modern inflatable yurts can provide inspiration and experiences for the tourism industry," he says.

Both the study center and the exhibition were launched in early July, co-organized by CACTA and CAA. The exhibition shows carefully selected cases from Beautiful China Initiative projects that are closely related to the cultural and tourism industries.

"Based on this center, we will build more research and study platforms, spread experience and the motivation to act, and create an intelligent network that will connect people," said Ma Feng, president of the CACTA, in a speech at the launch ceremony for the study center.

In 2021, CAA set up the Research Institute of the Better China Initiative in the spirit of facilitating the creation of a beautiful China through art, which, as Gao writes in the preface of the exhibition notes, has become a major force in promoting cultural confidence and self-innovation, while art education is making a difference by rooting itself deep in the land of China and advancing social transformation.

In the past two years, the research institute has conducted investigations in 34 provinces, autonomous regions, municipal cities, and special administrative regions, and has interviewed artists, scholars, designers and entrepreneurs, accumulating a large body of literature, photography and video for the country's first material bank of art practices.