On May 7th, the “Reinterpreting Imagery: The Cultural Regenerative Power of Design” exhibition and salon event officially opened at the Sino-Italian Future Fashion Center and the Living Room No. 8 of Baolong Plaza in Keqiao District, Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province. The event was jointly organized by the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University, the Tsinghua University Sino-Italian Design Innovation Hub, and the Management Committee of China Light & Textile City. Hosted by the Department of Textile and Fashion Design at Tsinghua University and the Sino-Italian Future Fashion Innovation Center, the event is a highlight of the Keqiao 2025 Spring Fashion Week. It focuses on the inheritance of traditional cultural design in the digital intelligence era, presenting a dialogue between tradition and the future. Representatives from the organizing institutions, scholars, designers, industry leaders, and young creators gathered to explore the regenerative power of culture and design.
Exhibition Opening
Qin Chuan, Party Secretary of the Academy of Arts & Design, Tsinghua University (left), and Sun Weigang, Deputy Party Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of China Light & Textile City (right), attended the opening ceremony. In his opening speech, Qin Chuan emphasized that Keqiao, as a vital hub of China’s textile industry, not only carries the historical memory of “producing thousands of bolts of silk daily” but also showcases the vibrant energy of green textiles in the era of digital transformation. As a prestigious institution for art and design education, Tsinghua University has long been committed to the study of traditional culture and the exploration of cutting-edge design. The collaboration between Tsinghua University and Keqiao is a practical example of the deep integration of industry, academia, and research. Leveraging platforms such as the Tsinghua University Sino-Italian Design Innovation Hub, the Academy aims to bring its expertise in traditional culture and design innovation to support the high-end, fashionable, and international development of Keqiao’s textile industry, helping Chinese design gain global recognition.
Sun Weigang stated that in the context of the “dual circulation” strategy, it is imperative to explore how culture can empower manufacturing and how design can drive transformation. Keqiao is accelerating the construction of an open design innovation ecosystem, fostering the growth of original brands, and encouraging collaboration between universities and enterprises. This will enable young designers to deeply integrate their creativity with local industries, using modern design language to reinterpret traditional cultural values. In the future, China Light & Textile City sincerely hopes to deepen its cooperation with Tsinghua University to jointly promote more culturally profound and internationally influential design projects in Keqiao, building a fashion platform that gathers creativity, is rooted in industry, and connects globally.
Ruan Chunping, Director of the Creative Industry Service Center of China Light & Textile City, also attended the opening ceremony. Li Yingjun, the curator and a professor at Tsinghua University, provided a guided tour of the exhibition. The exhibition showcases representative works by faculty, students, and alumni of Tsinghua University, exploring the transformation of traditional culture into contemporary fashion. The works include contemporary reinterpretations of traditional imagery, redesigns of traditional materials, and virtual fashion expressions of traditional aesthetics.
Salon Keynote Speeches
At the salon, five distinguished guests from the global creative design industry shared their insights based on diverse cultural backgrounds and professional perspectives. From global brand strategies to the reconstruction of local craftsmanship, from AI and bio-materials in future fashion to cultural language in virtual imagery, they provided multidimensional inspiration for the power of design.
The salon was moderated by Professor Li Yingjun of Tsinghua University. He noted that “Reinterpreting Imagery” signifies the reinterpretation of traditional images and cultural motifs, as well as the comprehensive activation of materials, techniques, semantics, and expressions. The core of design lies in transforming traditional cultural language into contemporary visual and industrial language. The collaboration between Tsinghua University and Keqiao represents a new paradigm that connects profound cultural research with practical manufacturing capabilities, paving a new path for traditional culture to enter the digital era.
Simon Collins, former Dean of the School of Fashion at Parsons School of Design, emphasized that brand building is not just about updating forms but also about the recreation of cultural content and emotional value. He proposed that design should integrate sustainable concepts, technological tools, and emotional resonance, embracing local wisdom with a global perspective and using modern design language to tell stories of “ancient artistry.” Design is not merely about creating beauty but about constructing the future with culture as the driver and humanity at its core.
Fang Ying, President of the Beijing Fashion Designers Association, argued that traditional craftsmanship is not a static heritage confined to museums but a “living resource” imbued with historical wisdom. She emphasized that designers should approach tradition with reverence, creating a warm dialogue between Eastern aesthetics and modern contexts. She advocated for the “symbiosis of craftsmanship and technology,” allowing intangible cultural heritage to flourish in contemporary fashion and serve as a bridge for cultural inheritance and innovation.
Liu Canming, Professor at the College of Fashion and Design, Donghua University, explored how design translates the symbols and concepts of traditional culture into tangible, wearable, and communicable forms in contemporary contexts. He proposed that design is not merely a reproduction of tradition but a process of “creative recombination” of cultural genes. In the tension between global and local, ephemeral and eternal, design becomes a bridge connecting cultural memory and modern life.
Wu Xueqian, a Ph.D. candidate at AADTHU, presented the cutting-edge “Growing Sprouts” project, proposing that clothing should not be static objects but “living” entities that grow. This future children’s wear concept integrates AI algorithms and bio-manufacturing, using materials such as bacterial cellulose and algae fibers to adapt to children’s growth, enabling self-adaptation and self-repair. With the concept of “clothing as ecological partners,” she envisioned new possibilities for cultural imagination and technological ethics in the digital age.
Kui Li, a senior game fashion designer at Tencent’s TiMi Studio, shared the cultural logic behind virtual fashion design in games. She pointed out that Generation Z seeks immersive experiences, and virtual fashion is reshaping aesthetics and consumption, becoming a new medium for cultural dissemination that resonates with young users. By refining graphic language, color symbolism, and cultural symbols, designers reweave tradition in virtual narratives, creating a visual language system that combines cultural depth and contemporary expression. She also revealed the mechanisms of cultural reconstruction in game visual design through the case of the Dunhuang series in a national-level game project.
The “Reinterpreting Imagery” salon brought together diverse perspectives on traditional craftsmanship, cross-cultural branding, AI design, and game IP, showcasing the immense potential of design as a medium for cultural regeneration. It not only addressed the contemporary challenges of creative design but also infused the textile and fashion industry with intellectual depth and cultural warmth, providing new inspiration and pathways for Keqiao to become a hub of cultural innovation and fashion.
