Jennifer ALTEHENGER (Oxford University)

In 1981, Furniture and Life magazine (Jiaju yu shenghuo) was first published in the city of Xi’an. Within a few years, the magazine became one of China’s most popular design and home-making publications, well-known for its DIY guides, advice columns, home stories, and close engagement with readers. Each issue discussed how to “beautify” homes and how to turn “socialist material civilization” into lived experience. Modular furniture was central to the magazine’s vision of a new everyday life and for many readers it soon became a material signifier of economic reform. This talk explores the colourful history of Furniture and Life, illustrating how writers, artists, designers, architects and engineers presented but also made the socialist modern during the 1980s.