Atavist, where have you been?

[caption id="attachment_111" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="LED crazy China"][/caption]

China, naturally. Given that we build almost everything in the world that needs building in China, it's a pretty natural place for an electrical engineer to end up. I spent two weeks there and another week after I got back recovering from some intestinal parasite. I'm as inclined to blame the airline as I am the delicious food I had in China for the bug that tried to chew it's way out of my gut.

So, I went there to start up production for some new products.  I probably shouldn't go into too many details about what and how because we were recently given some pretty strict guidelines about putting that sort of information on the internet.  I did find the whole experience to be incredibly enlightening.

First, I've been working with these people via email for a couple years and meeting them was a great experience.  I was really surprised to find out how much reverence they have for American engineers.  They assume because of the great technologies that America has developed that American engineers must know what they're doing.  I felt a pretty intense sense of responsibility as a result to really know what I'm doing and to be sure that the design decisions that I'm making make ultimate design and manufacturing sense.  If I don't, chances are that the Chinese engineers are going to solve problems in their own special way which as far as I can tell is, "throw some more people at it."  Labor is so cheap that it's usually easier to add operators rather than solve design or manufacturability problems.

On a related note, it seemed like my Chinese counterparts were more likely to live with the bad consequences of my poor design decisions than they were to point out the flaws in my designs.  It was difficult to convey that it wouldn't offend me to tell me that something I made didn't work or needed some more design.  This will be a work in progress.

Culturally and economically, China is booming.  There is an air of possibility and growth in China.  People look forward to the future in a way that I imagine as reminiscent of 1950s America.  It's a general shared sense of hopefulness and pride in accomplishment that I found exciting.  Near my hotel, they were building skyscrapers around the clock, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  I saw them digging holes with a backhoe a night by flashlight.  When I woke up, I thought they had stopped until I saw the operator wake up in the cab and start digging again.  Amazing.

On a final interesting note, we're all aware of the one child policy, but did you know how they enforce it?  The penalty for having a second child is a fine equal to four years of your family's salary.  Not just your salary, but your entire family's.  That would keep me pretty interested in family planning.