本文是英国著名设计史家、布莱顿大学教授乔纳森.伍德汉姆为其《20世纪的设计》写的中文版序言(题目为译者所加)。他从一个英国学者的角度、远距离对20世纪中国设计与世界设计潮流之间的关系作了简明的梳理,并对当代中国设计的问题和前景提出了自己的看法。他认为,设计在未来的角色还有待观察,但设计史家的一个重要任务则是研究新兴国家在20世纪的设计文化。 This article is a preface to the Chinese version of the “Design of the 20th Century” by Jonathan Woodham, a renowned British historian of design, and a translator. From a British scholar’s perspective, he made a brief review of the relationship between Chinese design and world design trends in the 20th century and offered his own views on the problems and prospects of contemporary Chinese design. In his opinion, the role of design in the future remains to be seen, but one of the important tasks of designing historians is to study the design culture of emerging countries in the 20th century.