Car Design Asia Myths, Brands, People

Author: Paolo Tumminelli, ISBN: 9783832795382, 304 pages, hardcover

An unique history of Asia’s contribution to automobile design and culture
A must-have for all car enthusiasts

The third volume in a series on automotive culture, Car Design Asia continues and concludes the narrative that has already explored Europe and America. Having started in the 1950s as a smaller player, compared to Europe and the United States, East Asia’s automobile industry has since consistently grown, developing into the most dynamic global creative force in the process. At the forefront of technology and design, cars from Japan today include some of the most commercially successful automobiles ever built, as well as a great many of the odd, the whimsical, and the spectacular kind. From the cute, microscopic Kei cars, through iconic sports cars to innovative crossover vehicles: Like a well-kept secret, many East Asian brands and models still remain concealed from Western eyes and ears—and put an end to the myth of the East copying the West. Equally mysterious are the people behind these automotive legends. Seemingly a logical consequence of a long-term strategy is a global automotive fashion, at once of purely Asian breed, yet rooted in global design trends, originating from the Chinese, South Korean, and Japanese manufacturers. Enriched by hundreds of original photographs and pointing out the links among the East Asian cars and the cultures they respectively originated from, this volume bridges the gap between fascinating heritage and a promising future.