What does 生活美學 mean?

[lingo-ling]

I've been coming across the phrase 生活美學 a lot recently. It seems to be one of those buzzwords that suddenly comes into fashion among writers.

Here are three examples (all from Taiwan):

但此一加碼行徑告知了，當台南以整個台南展開生活美學時，台中有一糕餅業者，正嘗試著用自己的信念，挽回這個城市車站前的頹敗和沒落。

臺灣人文窯場展演館以華陶窯為基底，致力於陶藝與生活美學的推廣，華陶窯成立於1984年，位於苗栗縣苑裡鎮，背倚火炎山，俯瞰大安溪沖積扇平原。

目的在於提昇國內設計能力、國民生活美學，提供一個可讓藝術家交流及學習，甚而推廣、行銷創意作品的空間。

From the context, it seems to mean something along the lines of "lifestyle" or "quality of life".

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

[OneEye]

I did some translations for a few design companies a while back, and they love empty buzzwords like this. Usually when asked to explain, they'd throw a bunch of other buzzwords at me, and it became pretty clear they didn't really know exactly what the words meant either. Lots of fluff, little substance. Add to that the fact that generally, in Chinese, the burden of understanding tends to be on the reader, whereas in English it's the writer's responsibility to be clear, and you have a recipe for lots of 廢話, with the reader left to decipher the author's intent. Fun!

Anyway, I might translate it as "lifestyle aesthetics" or something similarly buzzy-sounding and ambiguous.

[gato]

"The Art of Living Beautifully", maybe?

[lingo-ling]

Yeah... Taiwanese writers seem to love padding their work with meaningless fluff, especially when art or culture are involved. They also love to use redundant phrases, not to mention needlessly overusing tiresome structures like "not only... but also...."

"The Art of Living Beautifully" would work well in certain contexts, especially if it were the title of a work. But this context requires something that's shorter and more generic; something that can be repeated three or four times within a short piece of writing without making people say "Why does the writer keep using that odd phrase?". A Taiwanese friend of mine suggested that it means life being more than just staying alive, but living well. "well-being" or "quality of life" (or to get the same buzzword appeal, "wellness") might suffice in such a case.

[gato]

"Bon-vivantisme" then?

[Guest realmayo]

Brings to mind several unpleasant-sounding English phrases such as "contemporary living", "urban living", but not sure of a suitable adjective to suggest before "living"..... "cultured living"? "good-taste living"?