Love it when non specialist journalists write about design, because the fact is they so often ask the questions those of us in the field should remember to ask and they push on the issues we should all push on. (It’s possible of course that this is just a tenet of good journalism.) Anyway, The New Yorker’s Beijing-based staff writer Evan Osnos interviewed designer Jonathan Mak Long on the basis of an image he made in tribute to Steve Jobs. And he got some fascinating and I’d say unexpected insights into how design actually works in China. Says Mak Long in Osnos’ Q&A, Searching for Perfect Pitch in China: “While I acknowledge that subpar design choices pervade my country, I also want to suggest the possibility that sometimes terrible work in mainland China is not terrible because of its “Chineseness.” It is simply bad design. Period.” Love this.

[Image of OMA’s astonishing CCTV building in Beijing c/o Rejon/Flickr.]

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   The Chinesess “Bad Design”?

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