Students inspired by Shanxi history, culture

Classical woodwork

They learned what makes this extension possible is the unique ancient Chinese structuring component called dougong.

A dougong is a set of interlocking wooden bow-shaped brackets. Its function is to provide increased support for the weight of the horizontal beams that span the vertical beams or pillars.

Later, at Taiyuan Tourism College, the students had the opportunity to learn how to make dougong brackets themselves and how these ancient structural components can be used in modern creations.

"Dougong is among the most innovative structural components in ancient China," Mok said. "It is a great invention in terms of technique and aesthetics."

Chin Wei Chong is a student of multimedia-aided design at PIA. He said he is happy to see that designers can be inspired by ancient things when designing modern, creative products.

He noticed that schools in Shanxi are trying to transfer ancient things like dougong into a local version of Lego bricks.