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2. Why Design beyond East & West
 The first question is what exactly the “East” in “Design beyond East & West” refers to.
we call the East is East Asia, namely, China, Japan, and Korea. Research on China and North East Asia is based on China, Korea and Japan. It is important to understand what the universal aesthetics and philosophy of East Asia are The changes they have gone through during their stages of modernization also explains their civilized identity
Modernization and industrialization of the East has followed in the footsteps of western civilization. Before the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution and the discoveries of new continents, the center of world civilization was China. Chinese civilization was the largest core civilization in the world with the Islamic world of the Middle East and the Christian civilization in Europe being two more poles. This was how things were in more agricultural times. However, with the advent of industrial society, world civilization changed, becoming centered on urban civilization led by the West.
For the past 100 years, Asia has been copying the West and likewise, has been following in the footsteps of the successes and failures of the West. However, when we look into the industrialization and urbanization process of China, we can see a different aspect to the Western way. Industrialization and urbanization in China started in the latter half of the 20th Century; the urbanization in China began when industrialized societies were already moving towards intellectual and informative ones. Therefore, unlike the West, or even Japan or Korea, China is in the situation of receiving two new civilizations at a time.
As China is facing urbanization in this age of intellectual and informative societies, it requires a logic quite different from that of the West that went through urbanization during the age of massive production and market economy. The world entertains its last high hopes for China in its urbanization, as it lies in a totally different background compared to that of the West, Japan, or Korea, which have already finished their industrialization.
Since Japan and Korea have followed in the footsteps of the West and have failed, with its civilization assets and cultural traditions China is now facing the challenges that new civilization offers. Still, Korea and Japan cannot just step back and watch. Now, East Asia is the largest market in the world. The largest market must dominate the design. China, Korea, and Japan should take a lesson from the successes and failures of the West, take note of recent trends in intellectual and informative societies, and create a new 21st century urban housing paradigm
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