The U.S. Design Assistance on the Taiwanese Early Design Education

There are documented accounts of the influential role of U.S. aid in the development of Taiwanese design education. Missing from the historical records of design education, however, are the perspectives of local design practitioners who participated in the design workshops during the period of U.S. aid to Taiwan, 1963 to 1966. Using face-to-face interviews, this study draws upon the insights and perspectives of workshop participants. Specifically, this research explores selected participants learning experiences, personal interpretations, and private thoughts regarding the workshops and how the workshops impacted their thinking and influenced their professional practice. The study finds that the design workshops from 1963 to 1966 were part of the U.S. global strategy of economic assistance through design during the Cold War era. The design workshops incubated a number of design talents to either fulfill the needs of newly established design institutes or devote themselves to the local design industry. In addition to providing instruction for the design workshops, these foreign design experts also planned a curriculum as the basis for industrial design departments at the university

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Chien-Tu Jeff Lai is a professor of design and advertising at National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He earned his Ph.D. degree in art and design education at the Pennsylvania State University, and MFA in design at the University of Utah. Dr. Lai had worked both in the design and advertising industries for years before taught at the university.