At the China Auto Show 2004 it was clear that aside from the joint venture mega million investments there is a national car culture growing as fast and furious. Where once the streets of Beijing used to be chockablock with bicycles they are now packed wall-to-wall with new cars and trucks turning the sky a dubious shade of sulfur.

Amongst the big foreign conglomerate’s over-designed stands and super fashion babes (and the occasional man to this author’s delight!), there were signs of the design future of the car industry in China. The most fervent exposé of design consciousness was exhibited at the Chery, same as above, stand where dancers and decorations all spoke of some kind of ‘art direction’.

Commenting on the reasonably interesting interior design of their concept MPV to one of the ushers I couldn’t find an actual Chery designer in sight. To my surprise though just behind the concept car there were a half a dozen students sketching the New Crossover from different views (as the turntable turns) next to a quarter scale clay model. WoW!

Further inquiries led me to discover that the students were there as Chery guests from their university Tsinghua University (www.tsinghua.edu.cn/eng), located in Beijing. It seems that car fever has seeped into design classrooms nationwide as students from all over China are training to fill the much needed design studios that will undoubtedly spring up in the next few years, such as Torino’s very own I.D.E.A studio in Shanghai. But the kids were more excited by a tiny booth hidden behind Chana’s massive stand.

There I discovered Studio X-Gene, established in 2000 in Taiwan, it opened its doors in Shanghai only last year to provide a range of services in automotive design including market research, design consulting, vehicle design, digital modeling (CAS), clay modeling, and engineering. With China’s expected total sales to hit over 5 million in 2005 Studio X-Gene naturally is jumping on the chance to play a major role in the boom.

Fiat’s deliciously colorful 1970’s inspired exhibition stand was screaming with fun and free spirit but as their Chief Representative, Fulvio Ciappa, says “we can do more!”, and he meant that in both at the show and in the market.

With only the 3 and 5 door Palios and Siena Mr. Ciappa feels that with a good mid-range sedan Fiat could take a more significant piece of the local pie. Asking him why he thinks there is such an affinity for Italian products Mr. Ciappa replies that its all down to the media, the Chinese know and respect Italy for its fashion, soccer, and food, it’s a winning combination. With these lifestyle essentials clear at hand Fiat’s neighbor Italdesign-Giugiaro has got the message all right and designed the first example of a Chinese national automotive product embodied in a luxury sedan called Brilliance Zhonghua.

Like Mr. Ciappa, Mr. Giugiaro expresses his exhausting efforts to communicate to their ‘desperate to copy’ Chinese clients that experience cannot be bought or copied and that intellectual property has to be respected in order to succeed.

There seems to be less of a concern of these copycat matters when one takes a glance at Bertone’s Ideal city car designed for Changhe and Pininfarina’s Saibao sedan and Lobo city car over at Hafei Motor Co.