Paris fair shows how Chinese blend tradition with modernity

It was a sense of discovery and learning that recently permeated a room in Paris during a panel discussion about Chinese contemporary design. Held at Asia Now, a rare European fair dedicated to contemporary Asian art, the discussion was anchored around one of the fair's exhibitors Shang Xia - a Chinese contemporary design firm that is co-owned by French luxury house Hermes.

The panel comprised three experts - Jiang Qionger, Shang Xia's co-founder and artistic director; Geraldine Lenain, international director of Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art at auction house Christie's; and collector Dominque Levy - and was held on the eve of the preview of Asia Now.

The fair, in its second edition, and which ran over Oct 19-23, was one of the many satellite fairs around Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain, a contemporary art fair that every autumn attracts global collectors to the "city of light".