A quantitative analysis is adopted to analyze the researches on design history in such aspects as date, author, working unit, journal and theme, from the perspective of macro research, with 286 samples of papers in the past 30 years from 1986 to 2015. It finds, on the one hand, that domestic scholars realize the important role of design history in inspiring contemporary design, and, on the other hand, domestic design history researches are still confined in the scope of western design history research paradigm and method. Domestic scholars pay more attention to teaching research on design history rather than research on design history in different stages, different regions and different ethnic groups in ancient China.