While the term sheji (“design”) was not used in China until the late nineteenth century, artisans there have been designing and making beautiful and ingenious objects for millennia. This exhibition brings together nearly 100 precious objects from the Palace Museum in lively dialogue with Hong Kong contemporary design talents. It demonstrates the deep interest in innovation, materiality, and function in design shared by people of the past and today, and how contemporary work draws inspiration from time-honoured traditions.