Package and Product Design Exhibition Opens
On 5 November 2025, the exhibition “Instilling Life and Fun into Commodities: Package and Product Design” was launched in Caxton House.
The Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine (CITCM) opened the long-awaited package and product design exhibition. The private reception was attended by over 50 people, including LSBU staff members, external stakeholders, and Mandarin learners.
As it was an evening for Harbin Normal University (HNU), the event was opened with a graceful guzheng (Chinese zither) piece performed by a CITCM’s professional musician, Miss Dong Siyi, who graduated from HNU.
Professor Deborah Johnston, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of LSBU, remarked that the exhibition was not only ‘a display of design excellence’ but also ‘a celebration of our long-standing and valued partnership with HNU’. She expressed her gratitude to all the people involved in this exhibition, especially Professor Yinong Xu for his leadership of the Caxton House Team in hosting and installing the exhibition. Deborah highly regarded Caxton House for its ongoing commitment to bringing events to enrich LSBU campus experience and to connect our university to the wider world, while looking forward to seeing more such exhibitions and projects to come that inspire, challenge, and connect people.
Prof WANG Chaohui, CITCM’s Co-Director from HNU, recounted his unforgettable experience in communicating with HNU and collecting exhibits and information from them. He expressed his admiration for Professor Huang Qian, the lead designer, who is evidently most clear in mind of all her creations, from design concept down to details, from present engagements back to past projects. Prof Wang finally commented that it was the many visitors’ participation to the reception that has rendered the event particularly meaningful.
The exhibition presents some of the works created since 2017 by the Department of Visual Communication Design in the School of Art, HNU. Having curated the exhibition, Prof Xu stated in his introduction that ‘package and product design oscillates between extremities — anonymity and authorship, banality and originality, universality and individuality.’ Observing more than just simple oscillations, he continues to remark: ‘It is a paradoxical scenario of authorship lost, authorship regained, where the supposedly neutral transmission of information is instilled with artistic vitality and enjoyment.’
All the attendees thoroughly enjoyed themselves and thanked CITCM for organisng such a meaningful cross-cultural event. Many Chinese learners found the experience fascinating and were eager to attend similar events in Caxton House in the future. One guest who majored in graphic design said that she loved the panda tea pets for their creative and lively postures in particular.
The exhibition is open to the public until 5 December 2025.