(T.D. Polo-Sanchez' letters to his brother in America -
pasteurized somewhat for Magic City Readers.)
Hello Harmonious Kin from the country where one Emperor said,"We don't need anything from the outside world."
One popular saying states that nine-tenths of ownership is possesion. In China that does not apply as nine-tenths ownership is having a copy. I call the Chinese the Pirates of the Yellow Sea, or the Disney (black) Marketeers. Knock-off hand bags, shoes, movies, etc. you name it are for sale .
From my perspective, the cycle of invention goes like this many times:
A Brit or Yank invents "it."
The Germans over-engineer their version the "it-werks" making it twice as expensive.
The Italians will make a SUPER expensive "it-i" model, but they will have trouble with quality issues when making more than a dozen.
The Scandanavians make a box-like "IT" (that's it, it's square and it's good).
The Swiss will make a darling miniature "it."
The Russians will somehow get an original and reverse engineer it to make their own version that just works and be made entirely of steel or wood known as the model ''IT-54''.
The Spanish willl siesta through the process.
The Latins wait until their cousin Jose brings "it" when he visits from Los Angeles.
The Eastern Europeans buy an older beat-up ''it-werks'' third hand from a Pole, who bought it second hand from a German- knowing they can repair it with Russian parts that they cut in half.
The Japanese make the "it-o" model- faster, better and 50% cheaper than the American model but they can't come up with new ideas.
The Koreans "it-dae"is really a crapshoot in quality and most of the sales are to Koreans.
The Chinese hear of "it" from Uncle Chen in San Francisco just as the original prototype is made and start making it somehow - having never seen "it." Thus in the beginning they make an "yd" selling them three times cheaper than an America "it" and twice as much as any Chinese can afford.
The French try to get in on the action saying that it was their philosphy that made "it" possible.
When the cycle of production keeps going for a while, the Brit or the Yank novelity wares off and their "it"s are both expensive and suck (just like their healthcare). The German "it-werks" is too costly to repair so its it is only suitable for use on holidays. The Italian "it-i" is still SUPER expensive and only available by catalog, but you have to ship it back to Milan if it breaks so why bother. The Scandanavias have come out with their second generation shaped like a rhombus-the"IT" (that's it, it's like a square and it's good).The Swiss "it" becomes a collectors item suitable for display at the office. The Russian"IT-54" gets made so many times that the factories start placing part B where part A used to be, so it becomes the "TI-45" and no one at the factory notices.
The Spanish are still at siesta and the Latins now have their own Japanese, American, Korean maquiladoras, but ten people have to share one. The Eastern Europeans do notice that the Russian parts now come out as "TI-45"s, but their solutions is to turn them up-side down once the Poles no longer need them. The Japanese still keep making an old reliable "i-to" that works fine and for a long time but they keep making the same model in smaller versions for ten years -"i-t" "i-t" "i-t" "i-t." The Korean "it-dae" keeps barely alive because of Korean government subsidies and Korean consumer loyalty.
The Chinese have eventually practiced enough that their original "yd"s have become "itt"s and can be massed produced cheaply to somewhat resemble the American model from five years ago with the same quality.
The French are still quoting Rousseau.
The Japanese get another idea from the Brits or the Yanks.....
T. D. Polo-Sanchez
Assembled in the United States from parts made in Mexico and exported to China, T.D. Polo-Sanchez (pseudonym) has taken a year of absence from his post at an American high school to teach Oral English in China.
He hopes that you enjoy his posts and remember that he writes with a deep love and affinity to the Chinese people. In this world while we laugh at others and at ourselves, we laugh together. T.D. Polo-Sanchez Email: eslinstructor33@yahoo.com
