Pride of place, over time

She says she has consequently been able to revive the "wisdom of ancient people" by meeting modern fashionistas' demand for "functional, free and flexible" attire.

Designers have played a role in reinventing the charm of physical books and brick-and-mortar bookstores in the digital age.

Xu Xiaoding and Dong Xueling, from Beijing, got a bronze medal at the national exhibition for their design of a thread-bound book titled Amitabha Sutra.

The pair bored holes into some of the book's pages, through which readers see drawings of the Buddha the same size as the holes as they flip through.

The design reconstructs a scene of Buddhist statues found in rows of caves in the Kizil Grottoes in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. The drawings approximate the palette of the actual murals.

Tsinghua University Art Museum's deputy director Su Dan, who was a judge of the design section, says every winning piece "is convincing, keeps pace with the times and advocates a new aesthetic idea", while seeking solutions for current social concerns and looking toward the future.

Hang Jian, a design professor at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, says important original designs shouldn't lead to "a conservative, superficial understanding of traditions. What it really means is that the designs should be in line with the daily lives and solve the problems of Chinese people".