In February 2020, the carmaker SAIC-GM-Wuling began making face masks. Its first masks carried the slogan Renmin xuyao shenme, Wuling jiu zao shenme: Whatever the people need, Wuling makes.
The slogan stayed. In July 2020, a company representative described it as the shared slogan of Wuling Motors and SAIC-GM-Wuling.
The Chinese phone maker Transsion developed beauty camera functions to solve the photo problems of users with dark skin in Africa and India. It also built phones for a local habit. Many African consumers carry several SIM cards.
According to the market research firm IDC, Transsion held 8.1 percent of the world phone market in 2019, in fourth place. In Africa its share was 52.5 percent.
In the chapter Moderation in Use, Mozi gives the rule of the ancient sage kings for all craftsmen, the makers of wheels, carts, leather, gourds, pottery, metal and wood: “Make whatever serves the people’s use. Where more spending adds nothing to the people’s benefit, stop.”
A house needs walls that keep out wind and cold, and a roof against snow, frost, rain and dew. “Spending that adds cost but adds nothing to the people’s benefit, the sage kings did not do.” Even when the highest ministers and lords came aboard, the ferry boats were not changed and the ferrymen were not dressed up.
The Zhaozhou Bridge in Hebei was built around 605, in the Sui dynasty, and is generally credited to the craftsman Li Chun. Its main arch is a flat segment of a circle, not a half circle. This saves more than 40 percent of the stone, lightens the bridge and keeps the road gentle for traffic.
At each end, two small open arches sit above the main arch. They save about 200 cubic meters of stone, cut the bridge’s weight by a fifth and let floodwater through. The bridge has survived many floods, wars and earthquakes.
Song Yingxing wrote the preface to Tiangong kaiwu, his book on crafts and production, in 1637. He explains the order of its chapters: “The chapters run from front to back in the sense of valuing the five grains and despising gold and jade.” The first chapter is on grain.
Among all things, he notes, “half are useless to human life and half are useful.” He ends the preface: “This book has nothing at all to do with seeking office.”
On September 16, 2020, Alibaba presented Xiniu, its first project for a new kind of manufacturing. Hangzhou’s news site reported that its flexible system could take orders from 100 pieces and deliver them in seven days.
In December 2020, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a special action plan to adapt internet applications for older people and people with disabilities. A first batch of 115 websites and 43 apps was to be adapted with priority.
The ministry called for products with large fonts, large icons and high-contrast text, and for better recognition of dialects, for older people who do not speak Mandarin. The adapted versions would carry no advertising plug-ins.
From the early 1950s, the standard shoe of the People’s Liberation Army was a green canvas shoe with a rubber sole, known as the jiefangxie, the liberation shoe. It soon replaced cloth shoes and straw sandals, and almost everyone in China owned a pair. In the 1960s, the test when buying shoes was whether they resisted wear and dirt.
The army retired them in 2002, but civilian production of the cheap, practical shoe continued. Since 2010, the shoe has become fashionable in China, Japan, Europe and America. An improved version has sold for as much as 76 dollars.
Chapter 11 of the Daodejing: “Thirty spokes share one hub. Where it is empty, there is the use of the cart. Clay is shaped into a vessel. Where it is empty, there is the use of the vessel. Doors and windows are cut to make a room. Where it is empty, there is the use of the room. So what is there gives benefit, and what is not there gives use.”
皮实 Sturdy. Said of objects that are solid and durable, and of people who are strong and robust.
经久耐用 Lasting long and standing up to use. Said of goods that hold up over time.
实惠 Real benefit. In the phrase 经济实惠, economical and of real benefit.
华而不实 Flowering without fruit. Showy outside and empty inside. The phrase goes back to the Zuo Zhuan.