AI or no AI, China’s manufacturing engine to stay in the lead

July 31, 2023 by Jason Li

From Dan Wang’s China notes, July ’23: on technological momentum:

Americans are now integrating these [AI] tools into their lives. And they will start showing up in productivity statistics, perhaps even soon. The longer that most Chinese are unable to work with them, the greater the risk that China will be left behind in some way…

Though…

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Innovating through manufacturing, the China way

March 9, 2023 by Jason Li

Dan Wang writes in Foreign Affair about how China is gaining ground over the US in the tech space by challenging the Western model where scientific discovery reigns supreme:

Unlike the West, China has grounded its technology sector not in glamorous research and advanced science but in the less flashy task of improving manufacturing capabilities. If Washington is serious about…

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Stop Calling It A Cold War

February 18, 2019 by Graham Webster

From Technology Review’s The US and China aren’t in a “cold war,” so stop calling it that, by Graham Webster:

Unlike the US and USSR, in which science and technology developed on largely independent tracks, the US and China are part of a globally intertwined ecosystem. As an example, ZTE, the Chinese maker of network equipment and smartphones, was…

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Starting Up in Shenzhen

Shenzhen Everywhere

January 8, 2019 by An Xiao Mina

Excerpted from the MIT Technology Review’s Inside Shenzhen’s race to outdo Silicon Valley by An Xiao Mina and Jan Chipchase:

In much the same way that open-source software enables a global community of developers to copy and remix each other’s work, rapidly creating variants on a piece of software to meet different needs, the shanzhai method delivered “hardware…

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An inside look at one of China’s first Taobao villages

January 9, 2018 by Jason Li

Over on e-flux, Stephan Petermann takes us on a narrated tour of Dong Feng, one of the first “Taobao villages” in China:

When we arrive in Dong Feng in the spring of 2017, the number of Taobao shops has increased from the initial three to nearly 16,000, with an average density of more than three per capita, the highest…

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Starting Up in Shenzhen

Photo Essay: Fidget Spinners, AR Guns and Panda Cams in Shenzhen

September 5, 2017 by An Xiao Mina

Editor’s note: Below is a select excerpt of An Xiao Mina’s Instagram posts from her recent trip to China.

Shenzhen, world epicenter of fidget spinners

At the world epicenter of fidget spinners. I see them in my head, spinning spinning spinning in Berlin, New York, Manila, suddenly viral, suddenly memetic.

…

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Starting Up in Shenzhen

A fictionalized tale of 1 upper-class, 1 lower-class woman working in fashion in Shenzhen

March 25, 2016 by Jason Li

Zoe Ho from Seeed has started a great series on Medium: a parable of two women from the extreme ends of the economic spectrum who both work in the fashion industry in Shenzhen:

CoCo… is always talked about, gossiped or admired with jealousy. Sometimes she cannot accept any imperfection, and would like to get…

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A status update on China’s high-end industrial development

December 7, 2015 by Jason Li

China recently announced it will begin producing and selling its first large passenger jet (since 1980 according to Wikipedia). In response, James Fallows penned two great posts, with accompanying charts, about what this means for China’s industrial development. Here’s his summary from the second post:

The chart was a shorthand for the theme I had…

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A Figurine Maker’s Journey Through China

November 11, 2014 by Jason Li

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Boing Boing recently published a great feature from Jared Zichek, an avid entrepreneur who manufactures and sells classic-comics action figures. In the feature, Jared talks about his prototyping, manufacturing and sales process – part of it happen in the US, part of it in Hong Kong and part of it in China.

Here’s a juicy excerpt:

…

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Behind the Scene at the Toy Factories of China

December 3, 2013 by Jason Li

I stumbled across this imgur the other day that featuring photographer Michael Wolf’s work on Chinese Factory Workers & the Toys They Make:

八八吧 · 88 Bar

Tag: manufacturing

AI or no AI, China’s manufacturing engine to stay in the lead

Innovating through manufacturing, the China way

Stop Calling It A Cold War

Shenzhen Everywhere

An inside look at one of China’s first Taobao villages

Photo Essay: Fidget Spinners, AR Guns and Panda Cams in Shenzhen

Shenzhen, world epicenter of fidget spinners

A fictionalized tale of 1 upper-class, 1 lower-class woman working in fashion in Shenzhen

A status update on China’s high-end industrial development

A Figurine Maker’s Journey Through China

Behind the Scene at the Toy Factories of China