Can we be more accurate when talking about Chinese products?

I sympathise with the OPs post and yes it is unfair to see China as a brand name. However I have never been able to distinguish actual Brand names from China. It may be just me in my dotage but they seem to pluck (english language) brand names from the air in profusion when I suspect often made in one factory. So concurring with others they seem to be great for low cost electronics. (LEDs) regarding shipping ihave had problems with small lithium batteries. One lot never arrived and I go a refund the next lot took 6 weeks but did arrive. Some concern i think about dangerous carg and airfreight shipping. olewill
 
There are three kinds of Chinese products IMO: those designed & made by Chinese companies, those knocked off copied products & those products designed outside China but made by Chinese manufacturing plants.

The quality of the first two is generally poor but the third is higher. So, design expertise is what they are lacking. I visit China fairly regularly (last week in fact) & my impression is that with a very young technical population with little long term expertise, their innovation I low. But to counter that, they are under huge pressure to get things out fast. So, if they can use building block designs & put them together, they get things done faster. Since even highly qualified people are plentiful, they can afford to have groups who develop technology & then groups who use that technology in products. It's rare now for western companies to be able to work that way since everyone has to be focussed on developing products.

Wait a few years & they will undoubtedly catch up. Many of the best leave China for a couple of reasons: they can make much more money & they can work for world leading companies. Some of those also have a longer term plan to move back. The company I work for employs lots of Chinese designers in the US & also in China. They're very switched on guys & the pick of the crop.
 
macd said:
(You link, by the way, is unintentionally comical, at least for we pedants. It suggests that "if The United Kingdom were your home instead of China you would...have 12.33% less babies". Just how does one raise 87.67% of a baby? Maybe they meant 12.33% fewer.)
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No it is easy
You clearly do not understand the young of today
You just dump the bird & move on to another one so you only have a percentage of time spent bringing up "baby"
NOTE: It is advisable to stay long enough for the baby to arrive first, otherwise people might label you as a barsteward!!!
 
The chandler I spoke to said most of his stock was chinese;it depended if you wanted an expensive say dinghy or a cheap one but they all came from China....
 
You know, it's fascinating. Even with the subject as it is, people are replying, saying I bought a chinese thingummyjig, and it was really good..... My first thought is "so who made it?" Maybe there wasn't a brand name on it or something?

I think the big problem is one of these:

Chinese manufacturers are either not brand orientated - they don't have a memorable brand name or logo? is it a cultural thing?

There are Chinese manufacturers and Chinese Sales companies. The sales companies don't want logos or brand names on the products they buy from the manufacturers, but for some reason aren't able/interested in rebranding the stuff that comes in with their own brand?
 
chrisbitz said:
You know, it's fascinating. Even with the subject as it is, people are replying, saying I bought a chinese thingummyjig, and it was really good..... My first thought is "so who made it?" Maybe there wasn't a brand name on it or something?

I think the big problem is one of these:

Chinese manufacturers are either not brand orientated - they don't have a memorable brand name or logo? is it a cultural thing?

There are Chinese manufacturers and Chinese Sales companies. The sales companies don't want logos or brand names on the products they buy from the manufacturers, but for some reason aren't able/interested in rebranding the stuff that comes in with their own brand?
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I suspect that that is just a perception of the Chinese companies. Certainly when I see chinese tourists in this country they are just as brand aware as the Brits. Designer labels, mobile phones and so on. I imagine that the Chinese manufacturers are shrewd enough to recognize the strength of a good brand name.

We probably don't recognize many Chinese brands because we don't know the Chinese alphabet, but I'm sure that we'll be seeing more in the future.
 
macd said:
Speaking of branding...or, at least, labelling...one of the biggest irritants of life aboard is a rat's nest of anonymous chargers with no indication of what they connect to. I try to label them, but why should I have to?
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I couldn't agree more. Standardisation would mean we could just have one charger to handle all our electronic devices. There was some talk of it a couple of years ago but nothing much seems to have happened. There is some movement with USB ports.....even though there is more than one standard with those.
 
Rigger Mortice said:
I suspect that that is just a perception of the Chinese companies. Certainly when I see chinese tourists in this country they are just as brand aware as the Brits. Designer labels, mobile phones and so on. I imagine that the Chinese manufacturers are shrewd enough to recognize the strength of a good brand name.
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Mrs Lakesailor sells lots of leather clothing and goods to Chinese visitors. The over-riding thing they want is that the goods are not made in China :rolleyes:
 
Lakesailor said:
Mrs Lakesailor sells lots of leather clothing and goods to Chinese visitors. The over-riding thing they want is that the goods are not made in China :rolleyes:
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Well, you wouldn't want to go to China for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding would you? Well, I suppose you might, just to be awkward! :D
 
Friend who recently retired spent a good deal of his working life with companies in Korea and China, one of his last projects was exporting high end engineered products to China. His very last project was having a factory built in China to build bolt together buildings, there is a hotel ar Heathrow he had built.

My friend always said, ask the Chinese to mke cheap (rubbish) they will. Ask the Chinese to make high quality, they can do that too.

What we have experienced in the West, I believe, is a down hill race to always buy the cheapest. B&Q etc will sell you any number of cheap (Chinese) power tools which might last the project. You can also buy known brand power tools which will last years also made in China. As long as the buying public clamour for 'cheaper' products the UK retailers will be happy to supply. All in all, you only have yourself to blame.
 
galadriel said:
Friend who recently retired spent a good deal of his working life with companies in Korea and China, one of his last projects was exporting high end engineered products to China. His very last project was having a factory built in China to build bolt together buildings, there is a hotel ar Heathrow he had built.

My friend always said, ask the Chinese to mke cheap (rubbish) they will. Ask the Chinese to make high quality, they can do that too.

What we have experienced in the West, I believe, is a down hill race to always buy the cheapest. B&Q etc will sell you any number of cheap (Chinese) power tools which might last the project. You can also buy known brand power tools which will last years also made in China. As long as the buying public clamour for 'cheaper' products the UK retailers will be happy to supply. All in all, you only have yourself to blame.
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That is why I originally asked the question regarding the Wind Turbine Generator from China.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?384570-Wind-Turbine-Generator-from-China

It is much cheaper than ones in the UK but is it of good or poor quality
 
Isn't China copying the German model in the same way as Japan did in the late 50's?

"Sheffield" was stamped on the blade of the knife. But in fact the cutlery had its origins in imperial Germany. Brazen forgeries such as these caused justifiable dismay in Britain. at that time, Sheffield was as synonymous with cutlery, cooking pots, scissors and knives as Solingen was later to become. However, whilst the english originals were forged from expensive cast steel and held to be indestructible, the German copies were made from cheap cast iron and not specially hardened.
(...)
At the beginning of this development was the founding of the German Reich in 1871. Freed from the stiflling customs levies of their formerly splintered domestic market of states and principalities, the Germans launched themselves onto the world markets as a source of cheap imports, much in the manner of China today. Lower wages and longer working hours than in Great Britain made the Reich extremely competitive at that time.

However, its level of industrialisation was around 100 years behind that of the British. Consequently, there was an attempt to make cheap copies of higher-quality products from Britain, which were then exported worldwide to the colonies of the empire, as well as to the motherland itself. at the 1886 World's Fair in Philadelphia, the German products were held to be extremely poor. "In addition, the Germans are highly unimaginative as far as innovations and alterations were concerned. Fakes were offered almost exclusively." This bitter assessment was that of Franz Reuleaux, chairman of the German jury at the World?s Fair...
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Full article:
http://www.worldone-journal.com/cgi...RAME_MCMS_ID=151&id=1332464388662497223926897

And if you enjoy a bit of irony:
http://www.theguardian.com/local-go.../christmas-markets-lessons-uk-germany-economy
 
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michaelchapman said:
Some European brands have their yachts built in China.
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Some Chinese brands have their boats built in Europe :)
Sunseeker-28M.jpg
 
chrisbitz said:
It seems funny to me that people refer to "Chinese" wind generators, or Chinese Anchor chain or any other Chinese products :-)

China is not a brand name! :-) China is 5 or 6 times bigger than Britain, so how can it be suggested that one bad Chinese product is in any way related to another Chinese product?

It's a bit like someone saying I bought an English hatch for my boat, and it was rubbish and leaked... Inferring that all English hatches leak, when in fact there are probably 5+ English manufacturers of hatches, with hugely differing levels of quality! Or maybe people should refer to English Antifoul?

I'm not having a go at anyone or anything, but it just seems like a grossly misleading and inaccurate way to talk, and it happens all the time on this forum! :-)
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Why not?
Almost every one I know here who once bought a British car will tell you the same thing.
It was rubbish, leaked oil, rusted terribly and has a terrible lucas electrical system which doesn't work when it rains.;)

I had a 73 midget, we called it character.
 
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