Taipei, Wednesday, November 19, 2014 - ASIATODAY.COM - The Golden Pin Design Award and the Golden Horse Awards, two awards that are leading the way in the huaren (Chinese-speaking) design field and the Chinese-language film industry respectively, have collaborated for the first time. Two beautifully designed, multi-functional chopsticks–Portable Yuan Chopstix II and PenstiX–by Yuan Design, who won a Golden Pin Design Award in 2012, will be included in this year’s Golden Horse Awards ceremony gift bags. “It’s an honor that Yuan Design’s products have been chosen by the Golden Horse Awards. I hope that by giving these two products to guests at the ceremony we can share the essence of Chinese culture with the international community,” James Lin, Design Director of Yuan Design, says.
The 51st Golden Horse Awards ceremony will be held in Taipei, Taiwan this Saturday (November 22, 2014). The Golden Pin Design Award ceremony will be held not long after, on December 11. Both awards focus on the huaren (Chinese-speaking) market: the Golden Horse Awards is the world’s leading award celebrating success in the Chinese-language film industry; the 33-year-old Golden Pin Design Award also opened its entry criteria up to the international community this year, and on 11 December will name its pick of the most innovative design products and projects created for and in the huaren (Chinese-speaking) market. As the Golden Pin Design Award adorns hundreds of worthy products with its coveted Design Mark each year, and because the Golden Horse Awards presents its ceremony guests with equally covetable gift bags, a collaboration between the two awards was immediately supported.
Among the many Golden Pin Design Award winning products, Golden Horse Award organisers singled out two kinds of chopsticks that symbolise the unique culinary culture of Chinese people: Portable Yuan Chopstix II and PenstiX, which are designed and produced by Yuan Design. The Portable Yuan Chopstix II is a set made up of a pair of telescopic chopsticks and a silica gel drawstring case shaped like a grain of white rice. According to James Lin, Design Director of Yuan Design, the Portable Yuan Chopstix II is one of the smallest set of chopsticks in the world. The length of each chopstick, which is made out of lightweight aluminium alloy, is only 7.8 cm when retracted. A special patented joint lock design prevents the extended chopsticks from retracting while in use. The Portable Yuan Chopstix II is also the only chopstick set that can carried around on your cell phone. “If you use your set of chopsticks as a cell phone charm, then you’ll never forget to bring them with you whenever you step out the door,” James Lin says.
The PenstiX chopstick set, which will also feature in the gift bags of some lucky Golden Horse Awards ceremony guests, is made up of a pair of chopsticks and a chopstick rest. The key feature of Penstix is that the pair of chopsticks and the chopstick rest convert into a stylus pen for a tablet or smartphone, James Lin says. The product uniquely combines the concept of a pen and a chopstick.
Yuan Design’s James Lin, who is hailed as a “Chopstick Master”, has a clear mission for the future of the chopstick. He believes chopsticks are the essence of Chinese culture and that only people of Chinese heritage have the ability to create innovative chopstick designs. “When I founded Yuan Design, my goal is to enhance and glorify more than 1000 years of chopstick culture. By collaborating with the Golden Horse Awards, I hope the Golden Horse guests, especially those from the international community, will experience the unique culinary culture and design ability of Chinese people,” James Lin says.
This year, for the first time in its 33-year history, the Golden Pin Design Award opened its doors to companies designing products and projects in and for the huaren (Chinese-speaking) market. In June 2014, a record number of entries were received from across the world in four award categories: Product Design, Visual Communication Design, Packaging Design, and Interior Design. Golden Pin Design Award 2014 Best Design trophy recipients were selected in Taipei, Taiwan on October 8, 2014 by an expert international jury that included design industry luminaries such as Dr. Brandon Gien (Australia), Naoto Fukasawa (Japan), Tommy Li (Hong Kong), and Prof. Cai Jun (China). The Best Design trophy recipients, who were selected from over 400 finalists, will be announced in an award ceremony held in Taipei, Taiwan on December 11, 2014 (6pm7.30pm).
Other important related events include the Golden Pin Design Award Exhibition, a free, open-to-the-public display of this year’s Golden Pin Design Award winning products. The exhibition, which offers members of the public a unique opportunity to experience some of the world’s most innovative huaren designs first hand, will be held at the Taiwan Design Museum in Taipei’s Songshan Creative and Cultural Park from December 11-31, 2014.
For more information, please visit the Golden Pin Design Award website ( http://www.goldenpin.org.tw/en/) and the official Facebook page ( http://www.facebook.com/GoldenPinDesign), or contact Kate Nicholson, International Media Liaison, DDG, on +886 2 2772 5850 x 180, +886 935 929642 or kate.nicholson@ddg.com.tw.
