Dayu Shi, award-winning designer [Photo provided to China Daily]

While pushing the limits of bamboo craftsmanship, he is also trying to encourage bamboo farmers and manufacturers in China as a whole.

Shi says that it is time for him to focus on what he is really passionate about.

"My goal as a designer is to have influential works, rather than just profit ... There are prodigies in music, mathematics and physics but not in design. You have to have life experience, common sense and good powers of observation to be a good designer. At this age, I have to cherish the time I am left with."

He is now working on a new version of the "tea chair", a type of chair people use in tea houses in Chongqing, his father's birthplace.

He is also working with musician Feng Mantian to develop a new version of the ruan, a traditional Chinese plucked string instrument.