Asian Style

Rating:
Summary: aimless prose
Review: This book start out promising by saying they will discuss a variety of Asian styles (not just Japanese and Chinese, which so many other "Asian" style books seem to do). The table of contents is also promising -- "Clarity and Simplicity", "Materials", "Colors", "Patterns", and "Shapes" -- in that it sounds a somewhat systematic treatment of various aspects of design in several Asian cultures is going to be presented to the reader.

The actual text doesn't quite live up to those expectations. The section on "Materials" really doesn't have a lot to say other than "Asian interiors feature little or no stone" and then goes on to list some things that are use: paper, earthen works, egg shells, natural weaves, bamboo, and silk. Each of these topics gets dealt with in a very cursory manner. Silk, one of the things that many people immediately identify with Asian style merits one measly paragraph and two photos (one of a comforter and one of some pillows, how original).

The book really fails to discuss in any kind of meaningful or systematic way how various Asian cultures deal with materials and color and so on.

Also the photos in book are quite useless. I mean, the photos are nice, crisp, clear and all that. It is just that they show the objects completely out of context. For instance there is an extremely zoomed in picture of a buncle of incense sticks. While there are certainly cases where I like this photo style -- when talking about individual components of style like proportion and color -- you need to have SOME photos showing objects in context or people just can't get an idea of whether than bundle of incense sticks would actually add a note of color to a room.

There are also quite a few objects that I'm not sure why they were included in this book. There is a photo of vermicelli in Chinese packaging, for instance. It is just food in generic consumer packaging. I can go to a supermarket if I want that kind of inspiration. Later on these is a photo of some Chinese newspaper used as decoration. Can you imagine if someone wallpapered their house with the New York Times? Just because you don't understand the language don't mean it isn't a dumb idea.

Rating:
Summary: aimless prose
Review: This book start out promising by saying they will discuss a variety of Asian styles (not just Japanese and Chinese, which so many other "Asian" style books seem to do). The table of contents is also promising -- "Clarity and Simplicity", "Materials", "Colors", "Patterns", and "Shapes" -- in that it sounds a somewhat systematic treatment of various aspects of design in several Asian cultures is going to be presented to the reader.

The actual text doesn't quite live up to those expectations. The section on "Materials" really doesn't have a lot to say other than "Asian interiors feature little or no stone" and then goes on to list some things that are use: paper, earthen works, egg shells, natural weaves, bamboo, and silk. Each of these topics gets dealt with in a very cursory manner. Silk, one of the things that many people immediately identify with Asian style merits one measly paragraph and two photos (one of a comforter and one of some pillows, how original).

The book really fails to discuss in any kind of meaningful or systematic way how various Asian cultures deal with materials and color and so on.

Also the photos in book are quite useless. I mean, the photos are nice, crisp, clear and all that. It is just that they show the objects completely out of context. For instance there is an extremely zoomed in picture of a buncle of incense sticks. While there are certainly cases where I like this photo style -- when talking about individual components of style like proportion and color -- you need to have SOME photos showing objects in context or people just can't get an idea of whether than bundle of incense sticks would actually add a note of color to a room.

There are also quite a few objects that I'm not sure why they were included in this book. There is a photo of vermicelli in Chinese packaging, for instance. It is just food in generic consumer packaging. I can go to a supermarket if I want that kind of inspiration. Later on these is a photo of some Chinese newspaper used as decoration. Can you imagine if someone wallpapered their house with the New York Times? Just because you don't understand the language don't mean it isn't a dumb idea.