Creative space

The Design Society officially opened early this month in the city's western Shekou district.

The V&A team's preparatory work for the museum relied heavily on WeChat, which lead to the idea of using the app as a key exhibit in the museum's collection.

The acquisition of WeChat is just a part of collaboration between the UK museum and CMSK.

The V&A is providing professional advice and training to help its Chinese partner develop the Design Society into a world-class design museum in its own right.

Speaking about their decision to come to Shenzhen, Reeve explains: "China is important to the V&A. Historically, collecting in China was one of the earliest priorities for the museum. We have 18,000 objects from China in our current collection. China is an obvious place where the V&A tries to have a big footprint."

He adds that new developments in the design and creative industries are helping to drive Shenzhen's economy.

"So, it's quite a straightforward decision for us to make, from either a historical or a contemporary perspective."

And the opening of the Design Society features an exhibition of 250 objects of design from the V&A's collections. The show, Values of Design, will run at a V&A Gallery through Aug 4, 2019.

The exhibition displays objects dating from as early as 900 AD, such as an Egyptian clay water filter, right up to the present day, as in the case of Flappy Bird, a popular free game app developed by Vietnamese designer Dong Nguyen. The exhibits are drawn from several V&A curatorial departments that originate from 31 different countries.

"The population in China is extremely large," says Reeve. "It's an opportunity to get our objects out there and displayed in front of a public who has the thirst and desire for more understanding about design."

Another two shows running until June 2018 are: Minding the Digital, which features contemporary works of creativity providing an immersive experience, and Nurturing Dreams in Recent Work, an exhibition by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki, founder of Maki and Associates and the designer of the Shenzhen art hub's seafront building.