'The bamboo professor'

• Source: Global Times
• [13:21 April 29 2010]
• Comments

The material between the two pieces of bamboo is recycled plastic.

Business obstacles in China

Matz also struggles in dealing with his Chinese business partners. He has found that Chinese suppliers are usually only interested in making a quick buck, rather than thinking about long-term business development. This makes it difficult to maintain the quality of high-end products.

"It actually depends on the clients," said the owner of a clothing company surnamed Li, who also deals with sourcing in China. "If the client is fussy about the quality, the supplier will work harder. But if the client does not pay enough for the manufacturer to guarantee the quality, there's not much we can do."

Matz also mentioned that his Chinese clients have a very limited understanding of intellectual property rights. "They just don't understand that they have to pay extra for something unique," he said.

It gets worse when a potential client doesn't want to pay for a design. Often, they'll simply steal the idea and have someone in a small village outside Shanghai produces it for next to nothing, Metz said.

"It happens in China; my company is a good example," said Li. "Because China is fairly lenient about intellectual property rights, we don't pay much attention to them."

Furthermore, information about specific designs is not kept confidential like it should be, Li said. Once a very good design gets out, it is easy for different factories to get their hands on it. Most people realize they can't outright copy another company's products. So they copy most of the design and change a few noticeable things like embroidery to avoid potential trouble.

"When it comes to business, people only want things for as cheap as possible… But, if you want to guarantee the quality of your products, you have to be conscious about your materials as well as your overall profit. Working with businessmen from the Chinese mainland is impossible."

Most of his clients at the moment are from Hong Kong, Taiwan or other places.

"It depends on the Westerner's attitude as well," said Trees. "In my experience, my supplier made higher quality (products) than I expected. They contributed their ideas to my products. My experience is positive."