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"Foreword" [2014] ELECD 792; in Shao, Ken; Feng, Xiaoqing (eds), "Innovation and Intellectual Property in China" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014) x

Book Title: Innovation and Intellectual Property in China

Editor(s): Shao, Ken; Feng, Xiaoqing

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781001592

Section Title: Foreword

Number of pages: 5

Extract:

Foreword
Graham Dutfield

As a child in 1960s England, I well recall the public's association of
`Made in Japan' with poor-quality goods. `Made in Hong Kong' gave
people the same impression. This attitude was largely justified. As for the
Peoples' Republic of China, nothing available at all was made there. It
was a truly mysterious country. I wondered if I would ever meet a citizen
of `Red China' in my whole life.
It is astonishing how rapidly a country's image can change. Two
decades later we could no longer be smug about Japan. It seemed that the
future was Japan, an uncannily efficient land of robots, wonderful
gadgets and elegant design. We had become envious and just a little
fearful. In Britain whole industries gave up and shut down. Since then,
though, the world economy has changed, Britain has recovered to some
extent and while we continue to admire the country's consumer products
we are a bit less sure about Japan.
China's image has certainly changed a lot: yesterday a nation of
hermits, now (from the admittedly skewed perspective of this academic)
a nation of international postgraduate students. But some prejudices are
deep seated and difficult to shift. To many people, China remains the
copier nation par excellence. An economy dedicated to knock-offs, that
has prospered not by making new things but by perfecting the art of the
rip-off, from the fake Rolex sold as a fake Rolex, to the fake Rolex
passed ...