Can innovators in China redefine the nation’s design output?

“Made in China” is most often a tag uttered in derision conjuring up images of your local dollar shop with its wares of iffy quality and questionable design. As a nation, China is a country that is synonymous with mass production. Despite moving away from textiles and clothing production (Vietnam and Indonesia are much cheaper these days) to high technology – it is geared for manufacturing rather than research and development (examples like Huawei are exceptions rather than the norm). The market is rife with blatant imitations of western brands and designs; pricing might be low but you truly get what you pay for.

But this post isn’t an anti-China rant – if anything – it is optimism for a far brighter future. And as always history has something to teach us – in this case, the process of industrialisation.

Developing economies goes through phases and I will be blatantly simplistic: it starts with labour intensive industries, moving towards higher levels of automation (mass production) and finally we can talk about design/ innovation. Inadvertently, this drives a great wealth divide between the industrialists and the labourers they exploit. With their new found wealth, these industrialists were keen to flag their status (often through gaudy peacocking in western designer labels – the bigger the logo the better). With a rapidly growing middle-class, the populace are also keen on laying their hands on these symbols. Nothing says “I have made it” more than the Louis Vuitton monogram on your shoulders apparently (and it doesn’t necessarily even have to be authentic). This, thus, drives what western eyes see as the curious behaviours of Chinese consumerism.

It starts with quality

Let’s go back to industrialisation, there are two other Asian countries that have come further in these phases of economic development – this being Japan and Korea. About half a century ago, post-war Japan held the status as being the factory of the world ;cranking out myriads of household electronics. As their production prowess grew they moved to automotives. As often the case, westerners disparaged these cheap and cheerful “rice burners” – at the time they were less reliable and efficient as competing vehicles offered by the established western industries. For the Koreans, this experience is far more recent – think the Hyundai Excel of the early 90’s. But times have moved on and manufacturers from both countries now often out-rank western offerings on annual automotive quality/ satisfaction surveys. The difference is on their approach; whilst the Japanese pursue manufacturing precision with their meticulous attention to detail, the Koreans have managed to leap-frog this by simply poaching top designers and engineers.

China has every potential to leverage the learnings of both these countries and arrive at the status of advanced economies even faster. But unfortunately, it often shoots itself in the foot. One only needs to remember the “Sanlu milk scandal” of 2008 which involved milk in infant formula being contaminated with melamine. Melamine causes formation of kidney stones amongst other side-effects. The alarming part of the story is that the Chinese authorities were unable to determine where in the supply chain this contamination was introduced. Worse still, this is far from an isolated incident – quality tests and approvals are often falsified and these are pervasive across nearly every industry. The effects of the milk scandal are still felt to this day, despite reassurances from authorities, there are still periodic media reports of Chinese buyers “daigou” swooping in on infant formula globally. I’m interpreting this as a vote of no confidence on locally produced products by the Chinese.

There is still cause for optimism

Chinese leaders fully recognise the need for creativity and innovation – its leaders firmly believe future prosperity depends on it. As China shifts itself from dependence on low-cost manufacturing to high-margin innovations and services industries; there are an emerging group of young designers who a driven by creativity itself. These are the new generations whom had grown up with the internet, often schooled abroad “haigui” and thus are well connected to the wider world. These people are ready to challenge to status quo to move others’ expectation of China and even other Chinese on themselves.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York recently showcased an exhibition titled “China: Through the Looking Glass” which aimed to capture the West’s long-standing fascination of traditional Chinese fashion. But this isn’t the stereotypical works with dragons, embroidered clouds or peony that Western eyes are accustomed to. Chinese fashion designers like Masha Ma, Qiu Hao and Uma Wang are rising to the challenge of reshaping conventional visualisations with clean cuts and looks that are informed by a side of China that, quoting Ma, “can only be found beneath the surface”. These designers are intent on fusing Chinese traditional craft with modern design – pushing the possibilities of local materials such as paper, bamboo, silk and copper.

Finding cultural identity

Let’s not forget that China is regarded as a “cradle of civilisation” with thousands of years of culture. To truly be successful, Chinese designers and innovators needs to mine through the social and cultural crafts to find their own unique identity. They will need to blaze a path forward to attain the respect and recognition to stand proudly by the phrase “Designed in China”. China is a complicated nation with a centrally commanded economy where, to the uninitiated eye, only certain “national champions” are groomed for success. But that hasn’t phased the legions of young Chinese technologists.

Examples like Alibaba and its Beijing-based competitor JD.com are not exceptions. They are a growing number of Chinese-lead, digital-age success stories which have only just begun. One just needs to witness the growing armies of young engineers leading the development of new features for the social media platform WeChat, the pioneering drone start-up like DJI, the mold-breaking smartphone maker Xiaomi and the growing “maker” scene centred around the open-source Arduino electronic prototyping platform in ShenZhen. For those who have visited the many electronics mega-malls in ShenZhen – you’d know how chaotic they are. But as Sun-Tzu said “in the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity” and these Chinese innovators are mastering the art of embracing the chaos.

So, to me, it’s not a matter of can – it’s simply a matter of when.