Thanks for your feedback, and you brought up some huge points. People should not be afraid of China copying and making it cheap, they should be more concerned in their hunger to learn and be much better than their current selves.

And I agree, Brand Management might be our only salvation.

I am very delighted to see that the article can be a basis for discussion in your blog. It is going to be really interesting to observe how Chinese industry will manage the leap from copying to innovation.

We did visit Tsinghua at the end, and also met outstanding Chinese designers at S.Point. They had adopted the “western” way to design products, but had a closer connection to Chinese culture. The design department at Tsingua was drawn by a Swedish architect, and they had heard much about Norway Says, a tiny furniture design company in Norway.

I believe different cultures may use the same design methods with great success. Chinese designers may have a harder time learning it is ok to “let loose”. Japan has fought to become as Western as possible, but Japanese culture still provides one of the most distinctive styles in product design.

Quick design and production is an extremely important advantage, but I do think China may have something to learn from our way of working with design. I do not mean that we are smarter in any way, we have just been lucky so far.. when they combine in-house, first class industrial design with their insane production capacity, where does that put us? In brand management, maybe?

That is very very true. I’ve learnt long ago people are varied and have varied and different ways of doing things. We should respect that.

I believe there is much to think about especially when there will be more internationally lauded and successful Chinese designs, such as the Olympic Torch, that will bring the Chinese design culture into the fold.