Hu Zuliu, managing director of Goldman Sachs (Asia) L.L.C.

    Another product favored by Feng is the "Aigo Aifly Wonder-Pen." The Wonder-Pen, says Feng, is an example of the kind of innovation he hopes will eventually transform his company into a Chinese Sony. Equipped with fetching white earphones, the pen plays sound files when its electronic nib is pressed against paper printed with special invisible ink. It can turn an ordinary-looking museum guidebook into an interactive experience, with readers able to hear detailed spoken explanations simply by tapping the book's photographs. "It's a unique product using unique technology," enthuses Feng.

    Aigo is not concerned about the global slowdown because it keeps putting new products on market. An Aigo official told us that although its sales goals have been lowered this year, the company may still maintain a growth of 50 percent.

    The rapid growth of the Chinese economy has accounted for over 15 percent of the world's economic growth. Chinese government leaders anxious to reduce China's reliance on foreign technology and design have made the building of national R&D resources a cornerstone of industrial policy. Spending on R&D in China increased by a "stunning" 19 percent a year in the decade after 1995. In recent years, the spending on R&D has doubled to account for 1.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a level surpassing even Japan. However, according to some analysts, China cannot be a threat to the technological superiority of the U.S., Japan and the European Union in the near future.

    "Most Chinese companies are cramped by factors such as funds, operation scale and quality of staff, so they lag far behind companies in the U.S., Japan and the European Union in creativity. However, compared to those well-established old brands, our company is young. We can do as well as they have done, or even better, as long as we try our utmost. This is our experience with the success of our MP3 players," says Feng.

    In August 2002, the first Aigo MP3 players appeared on the market. Before that, players made in ROK occupied a dominant position in China. But all of them had a fatal weakness in that they required the installation of a driver before use. In addition, they needed special connectors to use with computers. At that time, Aigo, which was already China's largest USB flash drive supplier, combined the technologies of mobile storage and MP3 players, realizing a plug and play function. "We tried to make things easier for our consumers, and I think that is enough," explains Feng.