A Brief History of Chinese Art

Author: Kong Lingwei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: With the process of modernization in China, not only has aesthetic education become a major topic in the development of humanistic qualities for college students, but also enriching and enhancing the quality of life for the general public through the forms and application technologies of beauty has become an inevitable trend. The direction of cultivating students in most art departments may increasingly focus on applied talents rather than traditional painting or pure art creation talents. This change necessitates adjustments in teaching approaches. Serving teaching is one of the duties of a publishing house, and in the face of this change, the first consideration is the reform and adjustment of textbooks. In the teaching of applied talents in university art and design programs, practical and applied technical subject content and knowledge domains have become the core of the curriculum, and most students spend a significant amount of time on these subjects during their studies. To accommodate this, universities and departments adjust faculty allocation, course schedules, and even educational models to suit the development of the disciplines. Our publishing house has also actively cooperated by publishing a series of applied basic textbooks across various disciplines to meet these needs. Many of these textbooks have been recognized and praised by teachers and students, gaining a certain influence. However, we have also collaborated with a group of university teachers and authors to address another topic: Is the higher education and vocational education in art colleges simply aimed at cultivating a batch of "craftsmen"? What is the difference between higher education and vocational education? The answer is clear: higher education should cultivate talents to pursue the path of designers, opening a way to train technically skilled professionals with creative and innovative abilities. Therefore, in the four years of undergraduate study in higher education institutions, theoretical and historical-theoretical content absolutely cannot be lacking, and it should definitely be the courses in the knowledge structure. If there is an overemphasis on applied and practical courses while neglecting theoretical foundation learning, it is very dangerous. In response to this adjustment, Shanghai People's Art Publishing House has decided to release two sets of theoretical textbooks to enrich our textbook system. One set is the "Series of Theoretical Textbooks for Higher Education in Art," primarily focused on traditional art theory. The other is the "Series of Theoretical Textbooks for Higher Education in Design," primarily focused on the basic theory of art and design. The two sets of textbooks share the same concept and are completely formulated in accordance with the teaching requirements of the Ministry of Education. In the planning and manuscript acquisition process, our publishing house has fully noted the priority of discussing and arranging key knowledge points and learning focuses. At the same time, based on the reading habits of modern students, we have combined the readability of the textbooks with interactive forms of visual materials to strive for the best book format to overcome the rigid appearance of theoretical books in the past. We aim for these two sets of textbooks to become assistants in fulfilling our pursuit of perfect teaching goals, proving that we are making continuous efforts.