Meet the Man Who Brought us Rubber Duck

This year’s Beijing Design Week (BJDW), which runs Sep 26 through Oct 3, in endangered of being overshadowed by a big bird. Not the Sesame Street character or even Peking duck, but the arrival of Florentijn Hofman’s Rubber Duck, after an iconic run in Hong Kong earlier this year. Rubber Duck has brought this year’s BJDW an unprecedented amount of publicity, but is soaking up much of the event’s early buzz. We spoke with Sun Qun, deputy director of the BJDW Committee, who also happens to be one of the 20 Most Interesting People featured in our October cover story, about life in Beijing, 2013’s BJDW and how it’s not about the bird.

Related: Beijing Design Week Soft-Opens in Caochangdi

How long have been doing Beijing Design Week (BJDW)? What were you doing before that?

I’ve been at BJDW for 3 years. Before that I was publishing an Italian design magazine called Abitare.

Where are you from originally?

I was born in Shanghai, but my parents have always lived in Beijing. I lived in Jiangsu for 7 years, went to university in Fujian to study French and then went to Italy to study abroad for two years.

Why did you study French in Italy?

My father was there working at the embassy. During the Cultural Revolution my father was a translator of Mao’s Little Red Book. After the Cultural Revolution he was part of the first group of diplomats sent to Italy and worked there for 20 years.

Why did you decide to start your career in Beijing? Why didn’t you decide to live somewhere else?

Because my family is based here and for a Chinese student returning from abroad, it’s probably hard to find somewhere that offers the same platform as Beijing. This city has a lot of weird stuff going on. The returning student might have a vision and a strong personality and is suited for a wilder environment. So I think a lot of students coming from abroad, not just myself, want to come to Beijing to try and make something of themselves.

So it was when you returned from Italy that you decided to stay in Beijing?

That’s right. When I returned I was the CEO of a foreign investment company. I was young, only 22 and already a CEO. Not even 22 maybe I was 20. So I was always in Beijing.

Video: Sun Qun Welcomes You to Beijing Design Week

What kind of impact do you think you’ve had on this city, through BJDW or your other jobs?

When I started at BJDW 3 years ago, I started wondering who my boss here actually was. My first boss is the government because they make a huge financial investment in this project. My second boss is the business community because whatever design work we do needs to be relevant to their needs. And my third boss is the public because if we do something that the government and the business communities like, but not the public, than that’s not going to achieve very much. So we do our best to think up ways to give everyone in these groups a chance to find things that meet their needs. So I imagine that’s the affect BJDW has had. Every year these three groups are all very energetic in participating with BJDW.

Can you give some specific examples?

Since we started doing BJDW, whenever our mayor received representatives from other cities, like Barcelona, they always ask to become a guest city of BJDW.

This year our guest city is Amsterdam. But they were one of three contestants. The other two were Barcelona and Mexico City. And every year more cities are applying to be the guest city, so the government sees Beijing getting recognition abroad. Beijing Design Week is probably the only annual Beijing event that gets over a thousand foreign media reports. For a government-backed event of this kind, that’s difficult to accomplish. It’s been great for the image of the city.

From an industry perspective, it was clear from the start that we needed to do something that was cross-discipline. Since we were doing a design magazine, we were familiar with that industry, but we didn’t know much about things like cars and fashion. Now, there are a lot of industries involved with us, like the automobile sector, digital design, and even jewel design. We’ve found the best people to cooperate with in all fields, even big brands, so this is how we can make an impact in that arena.

In terms of our influence on the public, when we started, we came up with three concepts: “the city inside the city” - Dashilar, an ancient neighborhood; “the factory inside the city” - the 751 and 798 art district; and “the village inside the city” - the Caochangdi art district. Today these seem like strategic decisions, but at the time it was really because these places didn’t want any money and had a lot of spaces for exhibitions.

However, these choices turned out to be very successful. Especially Caochangdi. It’s all taxi drivers and foreigners, so when we put on 40 exhibitions in that small neighborhood, it was quite a surprise for the locals. Dashilar was similar. We didn’t want the locals to leave, we wanted them to have the opportunity to be in contact with new ideas for improving their neighborhood. And the government was supportive of this. The residents found it exciting to have all these foreigners visit their neighborhood. The first year we had 3 million visitors to Beijing Design Week’s exhibitions, the second 4 million, and this year we hope to have 5 million people.

When did you get involved in Beijing Design Week? What drew you to this position?

I was doing media in Italy and felt that design in Italy and the Milan design Week were the best in the world. Everybody who went dreamt of having a design week in their own city. In 2009 after Beijing had its first design week, I had some friends who had worked on it and asked me for ideas on how to do it better. We made a three year plan looking how to make it unique, how to make it international and get more content, how to better use investment, and they thought the ideas were so good they asked if I would join them. So we started a management company to run this thing. I felt really lucky to have been given this opportunity.

What kind of impact do you think BJDW 2013 will have on the city? How will it differ from previous years?

I don’t think BJDW should be growing into a “different person” each year; it should mature as a person would. This year we are hoping for even more international attention. The government wants to see this improve year on year.  So this year we not only have representatives from Amsterdam, we also have representatives from Barcelona who will be joining a large forum on grand design.

From the industry side, this year we have 40 property development companies who have joined the project, over 60 furniture stores and have large scale project with jewelry companies that will span three cities.

On the public’s side, we have over seven countries doing over 200 events in over 50 locations around the city. The Rubber Duck should draw 3 to 5 million people to the Summer Palace. So BJDW is growing steadily, more and more people are hearing about it, more industries are participating and the government is showing more support.

Related: Beijing Design Week 2013, Everything You Need to Know

Can you pinpoint one thing that BJDW really does for the city?

We think about this question a lot. When we were making the magazine we wondered, what’s the difference between a design publication and a fashion publication? We found that design magazines are on the left and fashion magazines on the right. In a Western country, the left likes to ask questions, they’re suspicious and like to find solutions, whereas the business community is all about making the sale, convincing you to buy.

China is facing issues like city planning, traffic, and air quality. Working with Amsterdam, we want BJDW to face these issues head on. We are not stylists for the city, it’s not about making the city prettier, it’s about solving issues and asking questions. It’s like, a lot of people say that Chinese students are good at taking exams, but aren’t good at asking questions. Chinese aren’t great at asking questions, but they are good at answering them. So we think BJDW should be about asking questions.

We also hope to help rebuild a feeling of trust in this society. When you have government officials, industry leaders and regular members of the public visiting these exhibitions and the core message doesn’t communicate trust, then the experience will be awful. Beijing is unique in that the city can hold this kind of event, because it’s a city that faces issues, social issues, cultural issues, and everyone gets involved. Ninety percent of our funding doesn’t come from the government, it comes from all the parties involved. Using this money to create a sense of trust, that’s the most important thing BJDW can do for this city.

What design issues does Beijing currently face? How do you hope to help solve these issues?

There’s a quote from a British Professor, I forget who, but he said something like, “People today know more and more about what they know,” meaning they are very specialized. An architect is an expert at making buildings, a city planner is an expert at planning a city, an air scientist knows a lot about air, and the government knows a lot about doing business, ha, just joking. The problem is: Can these people share their opinions and theories and work together? BJDW is not trying to be an expert in one field, but we are the only platform that can bring these different experts together. We can’t solve specific issues, but we help the government, planners, architects, and air scientists sit down and discuss their different points of view. This year’s BJDW forum, which will be on CCTV, is about Grand Design and New Economy. One thing we want to discuss is the idea of using a designer’s mindset to approach economic reforms.

Related: Rubber Duck Locations Confirmed, Backup Quacker Also on its Way

What’s your favorite exhibit at this year’s BJDW? If you could only see one, which would it be?

Well you can’t miss Rubber Duck! But I’d recommend the Swarovski exhibition, not because they invested a lot of money, but firstly because they had a Chinese Designer, Ma Yan Song help design their exhibition. And a lot of the pieces were designed especially for BJDW. At the exhibition we will be able to see a big brand, not showing off its products, but their actual research, and this is a concept Chinese enterprises are lacking. Chinese like trade fairs but aren’t so big on design weeks. So far, Chinese enterprises aren’t as willing to participate in BJDW as foreign enterprises are. They just think, “This isn’t a trade fair, we can’t do trade here.”

Secondly, people should go to see that Chinese designers can learn how to cooperate with mature industries/enterprises without prejudice. We’ve found that as long as Chinese designers are working with a strong brand, their work will be high quality. This exhibition will show that when Chinese designers work with foreign firms or foreign designers work with Chinese firms, they don’t face cultural struggles, but just the problem of how to design something well.  A lot of Chinese firms like to compare Chinese designs with foreign designs, but in reality, there are only good designs and bad designs.

Do you think the Rubber Duck will distract people from the other BJDW displays, or will it encourage people to see more of them?

From a media perspective, I think yes. It’s not fair. A lot of media is just focusing on the Rubber Duck. There is too much coverage on how popular it is. The Rubber Duck’s message isn’t about that. It’s public art, it’s supposed to open a discussion with the public, make people happy and feel innocent. It’s not supposed to make people angry and generate debate.

By bringing the duck to Beijing, or anywhere in China, the public’s reaction reflects traits that already exist in our society. It’s like if you visit someone’s home and they're happy, then you’ll become happy too, but if you show up and they’re arguing, then your mood will be affected. So the duck reflects a lot of problems in our society. What we’re seeing isn’t problems with the Rubber Duck, but our own problems.

The popular things get attention and more serious exhibitions won’t get as much coverage. But that doesn’t mean people won’t go see them. I believe audiences in Beijing are good for that. Beijing has a lot of people that will go and discuss the things they are seeing. It’s hard to change the media’s perspective. However, this year we’re seeing even more local media interest, so I hope they will get more talking points from these 200 exhibitions and people will see that there is more than just a Rubber Duck at BJDW.

Photos: From Robots to Rubber Ducks

Who in Beijing has had the largest impact on you?

The person who’s affected me the most is a guy doing property development. He’s a good friend. He’s taught me to live peacefully in Beijing. He’s a simple guy. His home is simple. His furniture’s from IKEA… This city just has too much going on, so you need to learn to find peace. He taught me how to take a peaceful approach to life.

What do you love most about Beijing?

Deep inside, Beijing knows herself, but expresses herself poorly. In her heart, the city knows what her good points and bad points are, but she doesn’t say what they are clearly. Sometimes, this city is really cute and does some things very well, but she is poorly spoken and maybe speaks a little too much.

A version of this article appears in the October 2013 issue of the Beijinger

Photos: Mitchell PE Masilun

Email: nickrichards@thebeijinger.com
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