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This is a series of articles published by Kai Fu Lee. I did the translation after graduation from university in summer to learn more about the technology trend and practise my translation skill.

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Translation of Kaifu Lee’s post on LinkedIn - Can Chinese Companies Innovate?

李开复LinkedIn文章翻译之十 – 中国公司能创新吗？

The pictures above are the “Four Great Inventions” of China: paper, compass, printing, and gunpowder, Thousands of years later, the Chinese seem to have become laggards in innovation. Some say Chinese are just copycats. Can Chinese companies innovate? I think the answer is yes!

以上图片展示了中国的“四大发明”：造纸术，指南针，活字印刷术和火药。几千年后的今天，中国人似乎成为了创新的落伍者。有些人甚至说中国人就是些盲目抄袭者。中国公司能创新吗？我认为答案是肯定的。

First, we need to have a broader definition of “innovation”. When people say “innovation”, they are often thinking of paradigm-shifting innovations like the best of the Apple or Google products. It’s true that these types of products are less likely to come from China, but actually there are many other types of innovation that China can excel at:

首先来说，我们需要对“创新”有一个更广泛的定义。当人们谈论“创新”的时候，他们通常想的是打破常规的那种创新，就像苹果和谷歌最好的产品那样。这些类型的产品确实不太可能来自中国，但事实上中国擅长于很多种其他类型的创新：

Localize & iterate: Taking an western product and localizing it, gradually adding elements of innovation. After many iterations, the product becomes innovative (example: Tencent QQ learning from ICQ).

本地化 & 迭代：拿一个西方的产品来并使之本地化，然后逐渐添加一些创新的元素。经过多次的迭代，产品就变得创新起来（例如：向ICQ学习的腾讯QQ）。

Cross-domain integration: Integrating multiple good ideas and creating something new out of it (example: Taobao combining the eBay auction and Google AdWords, Alipay combining PayPal wallet and escrow.com protection).

跨领域的集成：集成多个好想法并从中创建出某种新的事物（例如：淘宝结合了eBay的竞拍和谷歌的AdWords，支付宝结合了PayPal的wallet和escrow.com的保管服务）。

Business innovation: Finding ways to maximize profit (example: freemium model in gaming was first popularized by Giant Interactive). This is a natural result during China’s stage of development – entrepreneurs and businessmen are largely driven by monetary goals.

商业模式的创新：找到最大化利润的方法（例如：游戏的免费增值模式是由巨人网络首推的）。这是在中国发展阶段的一个自然结果 – 企业家和商业家很大程度上是由金钱目标驱动的。

Need-driven innovation: “Necessity is the mother of innovation.” Yuan Longping’s hybrid rice is a good example – the government funded research in areas of the greatest need – in this case hunger from the Cultural Revolution days.

需求驱动的创新：“需求是创新之母。”袁隆平的杂交水稻是个很好的例子 – 政府资助的最大需求领域的研究 – 在这个例子中的需求是文革时期以来的饥饿。

The above types of innovation fit well with the Chinese culture and heritage – they require iterations, experimentation, dedication, and combination. And they are result-driven (as opposed to creativity-driven).

以上几类创新和中国的文化和传统相契合 – 他们需要迭代、实验、奉献和结合。他们还是以结果为导向的（和以创意为导向的相对）。

Other areas where Chinese may extend innovation include:

中国可能拓展创新的其他领域包括：

Areas where the Chinese government heavily subsidizes. Alternative energy may be the most likely such area.

中国政府大规模资助的领域。新能源或许是最有可能的这类领域之一。

Innovation that can be derived by exhaustive experimentation – possibly pharmaceutical area.

能够通过彻底的实验获得的创新 – 可能是制药领域。

Innovation which requires solid foundation and extreme hard work, as opposed to risk-taking and thinking out-of-the-box.

需要牢固基础和极其艰苦工作的创新，与冒险的和非常规思维的相对。

Western-trained researchers leading Chinese teams, with potential for ground-breaking innovation.

受过西方训练的研究人员带领的中国团队，有里程碑式创新的潜力。

Americans are likely to lead China (and the world) in paradigm-shift innovations, but China may well become a top leader in most other types of innovations. The non-paradigm-shift innovations may be less glamorous, but they are more pervasive and less risky. As a result, China will reap great economic benefits from innovations in the coming decades.

美国人有可能在思维模式转变的创新上领先中国（和世界），但中国或许能在大多数其他类型的创新中成为顶尖的领导者。非思维模式转变的创新可能没那么有魅力，但他们更普遍也风险更小。总之，中国会在接下来几十年从创新中收获巨大的经济效益。

In the next few days, I will illustrate “Chinese innovation” by covering some innovators and innovative products.

接下来的几天，我会透过涵盖一些创新者和创新的产品来解释“中国式创新”。