Wow, you got it wrong: it must be my mistake, I was a bit too assuming on the context. - For me being "foolish", in the mouth of Steve Jobs, means not caring a

Wow, you got it wrong: it must be my mistake, I was a bit too assuming on the context. - For me being "foolish", in the mouth of Steve Jobs, means not caring at all about what other people will say or think. I see a link with the peculiar "bad taste" of shanzhai: they do not care what "good taste" people think of pink Teddy bear shaped phones. - I am living in China since 10 years, my wife is Chinese, my kids are half-Chinese, all my colleagues and many of my friends are Chinese. My comment was not "subtly racial", it was (trying to be) ironically emphasising the fact that in some people's disdain of shanzhai cheap gadgets, there is also the fact that those who build them are Chinese. Just like 30 years ago saying a car was Japanese meant something cheap, copied, second-grade, right now the same applies to Chinese manufacturing. And, in fact, often justifiably so! There are three kind of products quality made in China: 1) The very cheap that is sold in developping countries (have you ever seen those electric plugs with a single hair of copper inside for conductivity? cost nothing, burns after 10mn use). 2) The high quality sold to developed countries with Western brands. E.g. the Apple usb dongle in question here. 3) The medium quality sold internally and in developed countries as cheap alternatives to 2) above. By the way, this 3) class is the most interesting because as the Chinese middle class raise its income level, it will have to become better and better, until a Chinese brand will do better than what is imitated currently (just as Japan did with cars, hifi, etc.). I hear often that Chinese people cannot produce quality because of some of their "cultural atavism", and I think this is very wrong. In the past, they were manufacturing the best of breed in many domains, and in all their region of influence having "北京" (Beijing) stamped on goods was enough to triple its price.