Since Liao Yingyi changed career from being a doctor to a designer, she has not looked back.
The former medic, who is in her 20s, is one of the most successful Chinese young designers, skillfully combining Chinese tradition with Western aesthetics. Since swapping the stethoscope for the drawing board she has designed for top international brands like Zegna and Alessi. Some in the profession have even compared her to Italian designer Armani.
The passionate designer appeared in Beijing last week to run a design workshop at Peking University. Click to learn Chinese herb Herba Houttuyniae (Yuxingcao).
"The key to my success has been to infuse Chinese culture with modern design and to express it in a contemporary language," said Liao.
"The truth is, Westerners don't like designs that are too oriental," she said. "If they want something typically eastern they will buy Chinese antiques." That is also why many Chinese designers have failed to win support from the Milan design circle, an influential fashion center, because their designs have too much of a Chinese flavor, she said.
Some of her signature designs include sets of knives and spoons decorated with Chinese characters, a bag with a Chinese lantern element, and a bathtub where gusts of water blow out from numerous holes that massage acupoints on the human body according to the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory.
Turn the clock back four years and design was the last thing on Liao's mind. Majoring in medicine, she worked as a doctor for two years after graduation.
And she was never far away from death during her work. One day on a regular medical patrol, she was astonished to find that tumors had invaded the whole body of a young girl. "There was little hope of curing the girl; I knew that in a few months she would be dead," said Liao. Click to learn Chinese herb Caulis Sargentodoxae (Hongteng).
"I realized then that as a doctor I could do nothing to save her life," she said. It was then that Liao decided she wanted to get away from death and do a job she really liked.
Liao quit her job and applied to study design in Milan. "I felt excited about a new future, a future that my parents had never arranged for me," she said with a smile. "I have achieved all that my parents wanted me to achieve, studying medicine and being a good doctor. For the rest of my life I will do what I want to do, not what my parents want me to do."
Liao was recruited by the Domus Academy, a top design university in Europe, after she presented them with interior designs she made for a relative's home.
In her second school year in Milan, Liao attended the 2003 Milan Ermengildo Zegna Designing Contest. Her original works won her the top prize. When the result was announced many judges could not believe the winner was still a student.
Soon Liao caught the public attention with her design for Teuco, the top bath-ware brand in Europe. By applying TCM theory, Liao designed a unique bathtub with water outlets according to the channels circulation, which won unanimous praise. Click to learn Chinese herb Cortex L ycii Radicis (Digupi).
She then designed the concept show room for Oregon, which won her more praise from the design world's great and good.
The ambitious Liao is not satisfied just working with big brands. "I will create my own brand," she said. "A Chinese brand full of original designs. I will never copy others but will instead design things that are trendy, original and most of importantly, expensive."
Article source: chinadaily