A shade of blue from Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake will travel thousands of miles to unfold at Somerset House in London.
From 16 to 27 September 2026, the 2026 "Reviving Craft — Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage and Contemporary Design" ("Reviving Craft"), organised by Sun Media Group, will be held at Somerset House in London, UK. Themed "Reflection of the Mind", this year's exhibition draws inspiration from Chinese Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist thoughts, presenting three sections — "Clear the Mind", "Refine the Mind", and "Nourish the Mind". Using intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship as its medium, the exhibition builds a bridge for dialogue between Eastern and Western spirituality and aesthetics, conveying to the world the Eastern philosophy embedded in traditional Chinese culture: that to observe an object is also to observe oneself.
Zhuge Furniture ("Hm·KAZJA"), a leading name in China's furniture industry based in Chengdu, will present its work, the Cang'er Cloud-Dyed Cube Chair, in the "Refine the Mind" section. More than just a chair, it is a piece of intangible cultural heritage that can be sat on, touched, and integrated into everyday life. As millennium-old tie-dyeing meets contemporary furniture, traditional Chinese craftsmanship finds a new form of expression.
A Chair Carrying a Thousand Years of "Cang'er Blue"
The Cang'er Cloud-Dyed Cube Chair is a major collaborative work created by Bai tie-dye inheritors DUAN Yuan and YANG Zhirui together with Hm·KAZJA. Rooted in the brand's core philosophy of using premium raw materials, delivering healthy living for people, and upholding environmental responsibility, the work takes green design as a link, skilfully incorporating Bai ethnic tie-dyeing — a national-level intangible cultural heritage with a history of more than a thousand years — into contemporary chair design. Prized since ancient times for its elegant, fluid blue-and-white patterns, tie-dye has long been celebrated as "blue-and-white porcelain in cloth". Its fusion with the Cube Chair both revives this traditional craft and offers a vivid expression of contemporary, health-conscious living aesthetics.
The upholstery is dyed using natural plant-based dyes such as woad, following authentic Bai ethnic craftsmanship. Hand-tied and repeatedly immersed in dye liquor, the fabric forms rich, layered, one-of-a-kind blue-and-white textures. The interplay of deeper and lighter blues evokes the drifting clouds over Cangshan Mountain and the shimmering light on Erhai Lake, condensing the breath of nature, the warmth of handcraft, and Eastern aesthetics into a single seat.
Every pattern is the result of handwork, and each dyeing is unique. As such, each Cang'er Cloud-Dyed Cube Chair is a one-of-a-kind piece of home art — allowing intangible cultural heritage to move beyond the display case and become a living presence that can be touched, used, and experienced in everyday life.
From Making Furniture to Designing a Way of Life
Behind a single work of design lies more than two decades of a Chinese home furnishings company's commitment to quality.
The story of Chengdu Zhuge Furniture Co., Ltd. can be traced back to Chengdu Hm Sofa Co., Ltd., founded in 1999. Over more than two decades of dedicated growth, the company has developed into a modern home furnishings enterprise encompassing design, R&D, manufacturing, sales, and after-sales services. It has been certified under ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, CQC environmental certification, and Green Product certification.
As the drafting organisation behind China's Standard for Sofa Ergonomics, Zhuge Furniture has continually integrated ergonomics, eco-friendly materials, and contemporary lifestyles into its product development. The company has created its "7C" seating and support system, with products spanning multiple categories including leather, functional, and fabric sofas. Its Hm·Xida series uses 90% imported primary and auxiliary materials and has received multiple international certifications, including SGS EU environmental certification, meeting consumers' aspirations for a healthy home through quality, environmental responsibility, and comfort.
For more than two decades, Zhuge Furniture has upheld its commitment to authentic materials and genuine quality, consistently using premium materials to create high-quality products. The brand has also appeared on CCTV platforms for 11 consecutive years. To date, the brand has served more than 3 million Chinese households, with six in ten longtime customers choosing to repurchase or actively recommend it to others.
Behind these numbers lies the long-term accumulation of Chinese manufacturing's evolution — from making products to delivering quality, from meeting functional needs to creating a better life.
Bringing Intangible Cultural Heritage Off the Display Stand and Into Everyday Life
Modernising intangible cultural heritage is not simply about applying traditional patterns to contemporary products. It is about letting traditional craftsmanship genuinely enter the material, technique, function, and the experience of everyday life.
The Cang'er Cloud-Dyed Cube Chair goes beyond surface-level borrowing of heritage symbols. Instead, it transforms the scenery of Cangshan and Erhai, the philosophy of nature, and the warmth of handcraft embodied in Bai ethnic tie-dyeing into a daily experience that can be used, lived with, and felt within the contemporary home.
Its appearance at Reviving Craft in London is both an international expression of more than two decades of craftsmanship and dedication by Hm·KAZJA, and an active exploration by a Chinese home furnishings brand using contemporary design to revitalise traditional culture and bring intangible cultural heritage into everyday life around the world.
From Cangshan Mountain and Erhai Lake to London, a shade of Chinese blue has travelled thousands of miles to be seen by the world.
What it tells is not only the story of a craft, or a chair, but a new possibility for Chinese design: that tradition need not simply be preserved but can continue to grow within contemporary life; that through a single everyday object, the world can glimpse Chinese craftsmanship, aesthetics, and philosophy of life.
© Affaires Officielles