From Business Week September 30, 2009
Beijing wants to produce a new wave of designers who can help China move beyond a manufacturing economy
By Venessa Wong
China has caught up to the U.S. and Western Europe in great swaths of the economy. Yet China's schools lag Western counterparts in teaching "design thinking," or taking the problem-solving process designers use to create products and applying it to the greater tasks of running a business. Many schools still teach design within the framework of fine arts, without a significant nod toward business or other disciplines.
Now the central government is developing a design policy to help China move beyond a manufacturing economy and forward in implementing cross-disciplinary education and bridging left- and right-brained thinking. As in other sectors, schools are beginning to train a new wave of design managers "with Chinese characteristics" who can apply design thinking in a context that fits China's commercial and political landscape.
For the full story go to:
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/sep2009/id20090930_579320.htm?chan=innovation_special+report+--+design+thinking_special+report+--+design+thinking
