Douglas Young
43 years old, designer and entrepreneur
“It gets on my nerves when I hear people say that Hong Kong is not cultured,” says Douglas Young, founder of design house G.O.D. “I’ve made it my mission to prove them wrong.”
Very wrong in fact: Young, who trained as an architect, has taken local design and national pride, and flipped the bird to the naysayers. With the birth of his retail outlets/museum of Chinese design, G.O.D., Young has cultivated and defined what it means to be a modern Hongkonger. Up until the then, no one really knew what Hong Kong style actually was. But then no one had tried to define it or historically categorise it, either.
Hong Kong is a very special place, he says, with characteristics found nowhere else in the world. Young remembers his school days in England and how people would put Hong Kong down. Back home, colonialism didn’t help; consciously or subconsciously, people considered British imports to be superior, and that anything local was not worth keeping. The modernisation of the city just made everyone worship foreign products.
Young hated witnessing this loss of Chinese pride. Channelling his anger, he nurtured local designers and gave them a retail outlet. He wanted to present a local Hong Kong that was hip and cool and trendy. He created a physical space – as well as a mental one – in which to procure thoughtful and at times drole commentary pieces for the masses. “When you see something beautiful, you really want to try it. What I do, I want others to do, too,” he says.
G.O.D. started out by capturing Hong Kong’s icons and turning them into art forms, or rather retail objects to be appreciated as affordable art. In doing so, Young has been acknowledged for pushing the idea of Orientalism, for lack of a better word, but all he is trying to do is explore Hong Kong’s identity, and give it a global spin.
Young would love to see Hong Kong design on the world stage one day, with no more being pigeon-holed, or marginalised. Ultimately, he seeks a sense of balance between East and West that is – above all – very Hong Kong. Angie Wong
| Derek Kwik | Index | Fredric Mao Chun-fai |
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