
Chinese DIY Inventions - jnazario
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/05/chinese-diy-inventions/100511?re&utm_source=buffer&&utm_content=buffer3141e
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jdietrich
I think there's something of an ulterior motive behind these stories.

They present Chinese ingenuity in a charmingly harmless way - uneducated but
plucky tinkerers, building some madcap machine out of scrap. In doing so, they
subtly misrepresent Chinese industry by omission. China is rapidly
transitioning away from low-skill, low-margin manufacturing to high-skill,
high-margin R&D. The old jokes about Chinese R&D being a photocopier are
wearing increasingly thin, as firms like Huawei become global players.

The article opens with the line "One visible sign of China's recent economic
growth is the rise in prominence of inventors and entrepreneurs.", as if the
photos that follow are in any way representative of invention in China. The
real story is that Chinese R&D investment now amounts to over $160bn/yr and is
set to surpass that of the US within the decade.

I'm reminded of the aphorism "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you,
then they fight you, then you win." It seems we're still laughing at the 700m
Chinese citizens who are uneducated peasants, rather than preparing to fight
the 700m who are urbanised and increasingly well-educated.

~~~
auctiontheory
This is Hacker News. And these are some pretty darn impressive hacks.

Why not just appreciate what they've accomplished by their ingenuity, without
adding all this geopolitical drama?

~~~
yread
This is Hacker News. We're critically thinking individuals. When somebody
tries to spin a story for geopolitical goals it is fair to call it out.

~~~
mc-lovin
What are the geopolitical goals of The Atlantic here?

~~~
sliverstorm
The same geopolitical goals The Atlantic has every night, mc-lovin. World
domination.

~~~
calibraxis
Not quite; the US's goal is world domination, which everyone knows. The
Atlantic? Haven't looked closely, but its owner self-identifies closely with
US government. (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_G._Bradley>)

The US press tacitly accepts US world domination:

"'Withdraw all foreign forces and withdraw all foreign arms.' That official
was Condoleeza Rice and she was not referring to U.S. forces, she was
referring to Iranian forces and Iranian arms. And that makes sense, too, on
the assumption that we own the world because, since we own the world U.S.
forces cannot be foreign forces anywhere. So if we invade Iraq or Canada, say,
we are the indigenous forces. It’s the Iranians that are foreign forces."

"I waited for a while to see if anyone, at least in the press or journals,
would point out that there was something funny about this. I could not find a
word. I think everyone regarded that as a perfectly sensible comment."
([http://www.zcommunications.org/we-own-the-world-by-noam-
chom...](http://www.zcommunications.org/we-own-the-world-by-noam-chomsky))

~~~
jodrellblank
'Foreign' is a subjective view, not an objective one.

US forces can never be 'foreign' from an American speaker's point of view, and
that makes no claims about whether they are indigenous or not.

That quote is trying to stir up fuss where there isn't any.

------
noonespecial
There used to be a saying, "only in America". Its starting to feel like maybe
we replaced that with "if you see something, say something." How many of these
things could you realistically build in your back yard without a come-to-Jesus
meeting with homeland security resulting?

There's a little sign up the the tax assessor's office here that says
something to the effect of if you're about to do something around your house
and you're not sure if you need a permit, you probably do.

So, "only in China" then?

~~~
pnathan
I would entirely agree. So many regulations in the US! So many of these things
would not be legal. What are we stifling in the US by prioritizing safety and
security over freedom?

~~~
knowaveragejoe
Parent's comment is a little overblown, there are plenty of people in the US
who build all sorts of things just like this and have no trouble(helps to be
away from populated areas). Regulations aren't necessarily a bad thing. For
example, I'd hate to be in the crowd of onlooker when something explodes/comes
flying off, or to have my property crashed into by a DIY helicopter or some-
such. Note the kids just feet away from the rotor assembly in picture #37.

~~~
kaybe
"The local government halted Wu's plan to fly the helicopter out of safety
concerns." (#37)

~~~
knowaveragejoe
Defusing OP's point. There are plenty of other examples of deathtraps in the
photos, anyways...

------
clicks
Particularly interesting is #32, Sun Jifa. He couldn't afford prosthesis arms
so he built his own. They were apparently so good that others who'd lost their
arms requested him to make them prosthesis arms as well, so he made a business
out of it, and now sells them at very reasonable prices.

See <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22660393>

~~~
noonespecial
The caption says that he lost his arms in a _dynamite fishing accident!_
Losing a limb is a terrible thing, but if you have to be handicapped, that is
one hell of a back story.

~~~
andreyf
Mr. Jifa is obviously very inventive and resourceful, but dynamite fishing is
actually quite detrimental to underwater ecosystems, kills more fish than are
harvested, and because of this, is illegal in most of the developed world.

 _"Underwater shock waves produced by the explosion stun the fish and cause
their swim bladders to rupture. This rupturing causes an abrupt loss of
buoyancy; a small number of fish float to the surface, but most sink to the
sea floor. The explosions indiscriminately kill large numbers of fish and
other marine organisms in the vicinity and can damage or destroy the physical
environment, including extensive damage to coral reefs"_ [1]

1\. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_fishing>

~~~
CamperBob2
Yes, that photo of Mr. Jifa should appear in the dictionary under "Karma."
Fishing with dynamite is a pretty lame-ass thing to do.

~~~
Scramblejams
I'll tell you what a lame-ass thing to do is: Criticizing the ostensible
environmental insensitivity of a guy who, amidst grinding poverty the likes of
which you and I cannot properly imagine, lost his arms trying to feed himself
and his dependents.

~~~
CamperBob2
ROFL. With dynamite?

Things are tough all over. Now that I apparently have your permission, maybe
I'll go camp out in Bill Gates's back yard tonight and spotlight some deer.

~~~
Scramblejams
Yeah, freakin' poor people. If they were decent human beings they'd be living
green, sustainable, carbon-neutral lives respectful of Mother Gaia. It'd be
nice if they weren't poor, but since they're such greedy anti-environmental
jerks, they probably deserve it.

If the fish aren't biting and your children are starving, you're going to do
what you have to do.

------
dchichkov
I don't like the look of that helicopter with flimsily attached wooden rotor
blades. Even on the ground it would be ridiculously dangerous to run. And
everyone on these photos near this contraption are truly Darwin Award
candidates.

edit: I actually have some rights to have an opinion, as I'm a licensed pilot
and an experimental aircraft owner.

~~~
geon
I suppose if he was to actually start it up, he would ask people to stay away.
He is just sitting in it for the photo shoot.

And wooden blades might not be so crazy. Apparently, the Bell 47 heli uses
wooden blades, and the Kaman K-MAX use a wood/fiberglass construction for the
rotor: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaman_K-MAX>

Smaller props for airboats and such are sometimes made of wood, but the
stresses involved might be different.

I know model RC helis often use wooden blades too, but the difference in scale
and safety requirements would make that a moot point, I guess.

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venus
It's always good to see people building stuff - anything! - but many of these
are less original, viable inventions and more just plain models. Number 34,
for example, is quite obviously not a serious attempt to build a working
aircraft. In fact I wonder how he managed to spend so much ($6,400) on such a
piece of crap.

Some of the other pictures, like the artificial arms, are far more worthy of
merit.

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epsylon
It's funny they don't mention the reason why the people in picture #11 wear
these weird masks. In China, tanned skin is the distinctive sign of low-status
people (farmers who work outside). Paleness is seen on the other hand as a
sign of beauty and wealth. The health benefits of protection against UVs are
only a side effect.

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ckannan90
The three primary needs in China appear to be aircrafts, submarines, and...
floating spherical homes.

~~~
ww520
Or what the article wants to present by selecting them.

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chenster
Video of Wu Yulu's walking robot and other his invention.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49MoNLYFk_k>

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knowaveragejoe
It's striking how many of these mention the creator did not complete <some
level of education>.

~~~
auctiontheory
In some cases their schooling might have been derailed by the Cultural
Revolution.

------
chewxy
The Chinese seem to have an obsession with submarines. I wonder why

~~~
hammock
Because the water is too polluted to explore via swimming.

------
Lerc
The designs seem to show an interesting facet of DIY design. It's better to
focus on what something should do rather than what it should look like. The
most hopeless of the designs are those that try to mimic the appearance of a
successful design.

I suspect the hopeless cases are vastly over-represented because they make for
an easy news story fluff piece. Actual innovation is frequently subtle and
boring unless you look at the detail.

I think jdietrich has a point about the implication that this is a Chinese
specific phenomenon. Every country has people working on projects like this.
I'm in New Zealand and we got jetpacks and cruise missiles made by guys
working in sheds. Neither the crazy people nor the brilliant geniuses are
representative of the population as a whole.

------
auctiontheory
Maybe they can offer their services to the Spanish Navy:
[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/spain-
submarine-s-8...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/24/spain-
submarine-s-81-isaac-peral-cant-float_n_3328683.html)

------
Aardwolf
There are a lot of super cool things in there!

However, two remarks:

1) That first plane really does not look like it can fly (and it also says the
test flight failed). Thin carboard wings!

2) The riksha pulling robot: What is that between its legs? :)

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rvasa
Why are there so many submarines?

~~~
DaBooDah
They're used to harvest sea cucumbers, which I'm guessing is a culinary
delicacy.

~~~
gbog
Sea cucumbers are very expensive, and the taste is so-so. As the story goes,
an emperor did not have offsprings, and his physicians said he should eat
those sea cumcumbers in large amounts, and his chefs managed to make some
eatable recipes out of this thing, which became a part of the Chinese Imperial
Cuisine.

------
sytelus
The DIY welding mask is pretty brilliant. However that walking robot looks
highly suspicious because there is plenty of research that this is hard
problem. It's even harder problem if robot is pulling a taxi while walking. It
makes me think if this is some kind of propaganda spread by Chinese govt. This
kind of information and photos would not be possible to compile without govt
support/contribution in China, right?

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quackerhacker
3! I think is the best one! I'd be on an elevator all day just to "take the
stairs," down :)

Politics aside. DIY still implies the same thing as it would in Popular
Mechanics here in the US (something simple that all of us can do, under a
budget).

5 reminds me of the Red Bull Flugtag

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bennyfreshness
This is state sponsored entrepreneurial propaganda IMO, reflecting the Chinese
regime's push towards a more entrepreneurial focused free market. And I love
it, I'm hoping Chinese individuals continue inventing products to help all of
humanity.

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victorhn
#14 would be the least "politically correct" of these as the working robot
seems to be modeled with the appearence of a black guy.

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worldimperator
It's interesting that they have a strong preference for spheres as the basic
shape of many larger builds, apparently.

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leke
Number 17. It's just so funny. Everyone's faces, apart from the rock luncher
guy.

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andyl
Some of those gadgets would be right at home at Maker Fair.

