Give them time. When I was growing up in the Jurassic era, “cheap Japanese“ was the description applied to products made in that country. It wasn’t until the 80s that Japan became known for quality. So it was a couple of decades.
Many Japanese companies are having their high end products manufactured there. Quality is rising.
Of course there are cheap products which are cheap. That shouldn’t be surprising. What do you expect?
Fireworks!
This thread really isn’t “is China capable of making anything that’s high-quality?” I already KNOW they are. China is a gigantic country, there are highly skilled craftsmen there, there are poorly skilled laborers there, there are state of the art factories there, there are poorly run factories there. I get it. I know they CAN produce excellent products there if they want to.
This is more “what’s the Chinese equivalent of Cuban cigars, German automobiles, Swiss watches, Italian shoes” etc. Is there a prestige product from China where if you have one that’s made in China, that’s like saying it’s the best one you can get?
That’s why I say it might be a niche product, because if it was something commonly used, people would already know the answer to this.
One problem with this is going to be that as with the aforementioned autos, watches, shoes, though maybe not the cigars, there are also “cheap knockoff versions” coming out of China that emulate the form and design at a passing glance level without the quality. And that dynamic wouldn’t change just because the source object also originates from China, it might even be an accelerant.
In other words, let’s say that there is something that is a “prestige Chinese luxury export item” - say, Moutai liquor, which currently retails in the US at the level of some of the best known 18 year old single malt Scotch Whiskies. There are also many very similarly packaged, similarly produced distilled sorghum “baijiu” liquors that are far, far cheaper. Also exported from China.
In this case it’s more that Moutai is somewhat artificially inflated in cost/value beyond its merits as a liquor (it’s kind of a pseudo-currency as a Very Expensive Gift), but the principle is still there.
Blank DVDs as I mentioned. Verbatim AZO and Taiyo-Yuden, now made only in China and Taiwan.
And possibly Huawei phones, especially in a few more generations. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/dec/17/best-smartphone-2019-iphone-oneplus-samsung-and-huawei-compared-and-ranked
It’s not IF China wants to dominate the electronics market like Japan did in the 60’s and 70’s, but WHEN they decide to do it!
For my company, the problem is that China does not do unambiguously good descriptors. You can get top quality on almost anything, but not on unambiguous descriptors. You want German parts with ISO and UL certification? China can put those labels on. You want lack of ambiguity? We go to China and watch stuff being made and tested.
Those cork-carved landscapes in little picture frames.
I remember that as happening in the early 70’s.
Japan lead the miniaturization of transistor radios in the '60’s and with the Sony Trinitron in 1968 set the standard for excellence in TVs.
Akio Morita’s *Made in Japan *is a fascinating read about the rise of of the Japanese electronics market.
Checked Wikipedia to confirm my memory before I posted this. It was Sony (then Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation) that revolutionized the transistor radio market:
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_radio
"Japanese transistor radios
While on a trip to the United States in 1952, Masaru Ibuka, founder of Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation (now Sony), discovered that AT&T was about to make licensing available for the transistor. Ibuka and his partner, physicist Akio Morita, convinced the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) to finance the $25,000 licensing fee (equivalent to $240,695 today).[19] For several months Ibuka traveled around the United States borrowing ideas from the American transistor manufacturers. Improving upon the ideas, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation made its first functional transistor radio in 1954.[11] Within five years, Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation grew from seven employees to approximately five hundred.
Other Japanese companies soon followed their entry into the American market and the grand total of electronic products exported from Japan in 1958 increased 2.5 times in comparison to 1957.[20]"
The catch is that all the items listed are not unambiguously the best available in their respective categories.
I must add this:
https://www.asseenontvpros.com/Roto-Clipper-Electric-Nail-Clipper--As-Seen-On-TV_p_46.html]
It was like filing your nails with a very dull file. I don’t think it removed nail as fast as the nail grew. And then it stopped working altogether.
This made me laugh… when I first moved to China, I rewarded myself with a copy of Modernist Cuisine. It was fun to watch the tracking from China to the west coast and back to my home in China!
To be fair, these are special economic zones, and I’ve had similar experience ordering other “made in China” stuff while in China. Effectively, things made in these special zones are still treated as imported (and taxed as such!), meaning that China is a very expensive place to live.
To buy a laptop, for example, it was much cheaper for me to pay for a flight to Hong Kong and buy from the Apple Store there. My loaded iMac, though, was BTO and there was no way to do so. What I paid still makes me cry a little inside.
I was working at a pulp mill in Rizhao, China around 20 years ago. We were having lunch with the mill manager, and someone else from the US pointed out the piece of fruit he was having and noted he had come all the way to China to have a California orange.
The mill manager said “No you didn’t”, the guy says “Look, right here on the label, Valencia Orange, California, USA”.
The mill manager says, “We print many beautiful labels”. So, labels. China prints beautiful labels.
China produces home security cameras that are as good or better than any produced elsewhere. Of course, they’re all secretly rigged to send images/data back to China. :dubious:
The Chinese also export the widest range of adulterated pharmaceuticals and supplements of any country, with the possible exception of India.
I’d think we should also distinguish between what amount to Western products that are merely manufactured in China, versus homegrown Chinese products.
For example, nobody would say that Nike shoes are Chinese products. They’re still designed in Oregon, but they’re manufactured in China because labor and other costs are cheaper. Same with TONS of other products.
Just manufacturing products doesn’t necessarily give them any real ability in terms of design and engineering.
I just brewed some tea in a Chinese clay teapot that was genuinely made in China. Upon close examination, it appears to be handmade. It’s just a random teapot, but one Yixing teapot was auctioned for over 12 million 元, so apparently some people out there appreciate traditional Chinese ceramics.
Just guessing … but it would seem like there would be some very nice handworked bamboo pieces produced in China.
Maybe tea in general is something that China does as good or better than anyone else; Chinese tea is as far as I can tell, kind of the world leader.
I hear their Ming Dynasty Vases are good.