Draft:Wang Xing-Gong

Wang Xing-Gong (30 November 1947-) is a Taiwanese designer and design educator. As a native of Da’an, Jilin province, Wang was born in Shenyang, China. He moved to Taiwan with his parents in 1949, and graduated from the Division of Arts and Crafts, National Taiwan Academy of Arts in 1970. He is an avid editor and publisher who specializes in crafts, bone china, and design. He has been a member of the Taiwan Amoeba Design Association since 1974 and won several awards between 1979 and 1993, such as best advertising award, golden award of advertising, package design award, golden tripod award of art design, and golden award of book binding. He has been invited to be a jury member for the National Art Exhibition, the Taiwan Provincial Art Exhibition, the Kaohsiung City Art Exhibition, the “Taipei Art Awards” of Taipei Fine Arts Museum, the “Taiwan Packaging Star” of Taiwan External Trade Development Council, the 1st Asia-Pacific Posters Exhibition in Hong Kong, the 2nd Chinese Design Awards (Shenzhen), the Design for Asia Awards (Hong Kong), and “The Most Beautiful Book in China.” Wang has also been invited to be the chief convener of the jury for the Golden Butterfly Award 10 years in a row.

Wang studied in Spain and the U.S. between 1975 and 1978. From 1975 to 1977, Wang enrolled in the Graduate Institute of Painting, Instituto Nacional Superior de Arte, Madrid, Spain, where he was nurtured by the works from 20th-century art masters like Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, and photographed old houses and buildings in this area. After 1977, Wang pursued advanced training at the Department of Graduate Communications Design, Pratt Institute in New York, where he was inspired by Rudolph Harak, one of the iconic designers in postwar America. Wang learned CI and VI integrated system design, as well as commercial design applications (poster, publications, and record), advertising, and marketing. His engagement in and promotion of the design industry have an enduring influence on his creations after he returned to Taiwan.

After returning to Taiwan, Wang worked as the director of the Planning Department of the Taipei Real Estate Agency, and expanded his design horizons from advertising to publication and interior design. In 1981, he established the “Taipei Designers’ Club” with other senior designers such as Ling Ming-Sheng, Liao Zhe-Fu, Hu Ze-Min, Su Zhong-Xiong, Huo Rong-Ling, Zhang Zheng-Cheng, Huang Jin-De, Chen Wei-Bin, Chen Yao-Cheng, Wang Ming-Jia, and Liu Kai. Wang Xing-Gong has engaged in education since 1987. He has taught at the Department of Fine Arts, Tunghai University, the Graduate Institute of Animation and Film Art, Tainan National University of the Arts,:64 the Department of Design, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology,and the Department of Design, National Taiwan Normal University. As he taught at Tainan National University of the Arts, he not only suggested that designers should read and write poetry, but also encouraged designers to associate their creations with poetic images.

In 1992, Wang and his close friend Ma Yi-Gong designed the binding and co-financed the publication of The Rituals and Customs of Chinese Life, a book inspired by the Japanese field survey data on Taiwanese people’s life and the Chinese characters “歲時” in Japanese magazines. As a compilation of the rituals and customs in Taiwan, it was also the first book in Taiwan using computerized typesetting. Wang also compiled and printed, at his own expense, The Archives of Taiwanese Art in the Japanese Occupation Period (a set of two volumes: The Catalogue of Eastern-style Paintings by Taiwanese Painters in the Taiten and the Futen, and The Catalogue of Western-style Paintings by Taiwanese Painters in the Taiten and the Futen), which serves as important historical material for the development of art in Taiwan. Moreover, Wang is the editor and publisher of Historical Artefacts at the National Palace Museum, Traditional Chinese Rituals and Customs, The Beauty of Jade Sculpture in the Qing Dynasty, Taiwanese Art, and The Newsletter of the Chinese Association of Museums.