Hmm. I guess not. Oh well.
Here’s the deal. The US has relatively limited room for economic growth. We have most of the shit we need. China and India have massive room for economic expansion. In ten years, they aren’t going to be building stuff for us. They are going to be building stuff for them. And we are going to be big, inefficient, overpriced, heelbiting competitors for work in their market…just like happened to manufacturing in Japan (except that India and China have 9x the population to buy product).
Instead of making dumb, uninformed comments about how the uncreative asians are taking your high paid design jobs, you might want to consider if or how you can take their low paid design jobs. Are you going to have a cultural sensitivity about China? Do you understand that market? Or are you going to get shut out of it, just like american pomposity has shut American design out of Japan?
Get to Asia. Get on the street. Eat some rice noodles, taste some curry. Ask some questions and read some books. Figure out how to compete there. China and India are where the growth is and will be.
ID is not ending
everything changes.
get over it.
Instead of making dumb, uninformed comments about how the uncreative asians are taking your high paid design jobs, you might want to consider if or how you can take their low paid design jobs. Are you going to have a cultural sensitivity about China? Do you understand that market? Or are you going to get shut out of it, just like american pomposity has shut American design out of Japan?
Many of you have got into discussions about ‘us’ vs ‘them’, or ‘Americans’ vs ‘Chinese’ designer, but has anyone thought about Asian American Designers? those who aren’t ‘whitewashed’ have the best of both worlds. They’ve grown up in traditional Asian households, but live in a Western culture. and when you combine this with design talent and market savvy you’re going to have someone in high demand. Sort of a ‘bridge’ between US consultancies/corps and manufacturers in Shenzhen/Shanghai.
We’ve hire designers from PRC before in our new england office but, although he can speak proper english, he had trouble understanding instructions and client needs.
its just common sense, you have:
Mainland Chinese designers (little understand of West)
Western US Designers (little understand of East)
‘bi-culture’ Chinese-American Designers (undestanding of both)
who do you think will have an advantage?
sounds like one of these wacky sexual orientation articles in fashion magazines. " would you rather be straight, gay, or bisexual"? lol.“which one has more advantage? ofcourse we recommend safe sex”. whenever i heard it on tv or read something like that i knew right away those folks who endorsed or published the “saavy in mind” show or article were looking for ratings.
but seriously, back to the main subject, i don’t believe you have to be born somewhere to understand that culture better. this is a myth, because there’re always cultural barriers that make it difficult but it’s not impossible. it just takes time, dedication, and interest.
a good example is sports. soccer was originated in western europe but right now we see south american and eastern european teams leading the way.
tae kwon do is korean but iran is the leading champion. polo and hockey were originated in east but right now they’re favoured more in west and a new version created in northern hemisphere known as ice hockey.
although americans claim to be a melting pot of the world and the leader in modern culture i feel that they’re the most prejudiced people on earth when it comes to understanding other realities mainly because they think other cultures have failed throughout history and they have not only inherited the best but have done more in three centuries than the rest of the world in a 100 century span. that’s a bit too much, and i’m sure the rest of the world would not accept that.
i have talked to many chinese people about their political view of the west and they agree that countries like china will never accept such self indulgence coming out of a junior country like US.
so i think americans, specially those who put grand nationalism schemes and false patriotism above anything else need to stay up and work on their attitudes. they need to learn like other countries have learned what it means to be a part of the larger world at any time and point in history.
9/11 was just a warning from a radical group who represent a small fraction of Islamic world and everybody knows that at any given point it can get much worse if US tries to get into the pants of a big superpower country like china or russia.
it’s true, china is a communist country and that is not welcomed by americans who stand for liberal ideals. so why are they doing business with china? are they hypocrites? are they trying to be cute with a country which has 1/4 of the world’s population?
i think americans need to either find the correct model for the way they want to do business in this world, meaning assume responsibility and accept it as it is and keep their head straight or find a political solution for themselves by creating two individual political systems. one which likes china and treats it like a business partner and one which hates it and treats it like a communist enemy! till then americans are hypocrites who want to have the advantage and think china is so dumb it can’t figure it out alone.
I was thinking about this today talking to my designer comrade at work. All of my paid design work that is in manufacturing today is being produced in China. Now perhaps 20 years ago, all of these products would have been made here, but perhaps they wouldn’t have been made at all.
Because of China’s huge export-oriented manufacturing boom, it has given companies of all sizes (like my clients/employers) they chance to create more product and compete against the larger established companies. I feel as though without the Chinese, I may not have had any jobs, or fewer than I have had.
Will this change in the future?* It depends. Will highly educated white colar Chinese works accept 1/10 of my salary for the same work forever. Well…no white colars in Europe, the US or Japan are…so I doubt the Chinese will either. Sure there are a billion of them, but you would have thought 100 million Japanese would have had a 33% impact on US wages.
Fact is, they didn’t. There is just more work.
*foot note: Yes, I realize that everything is always changing. So keep your eyes peeled and recognize the gap before its here.