When I was a student in Zhejiang province, the one luxury I afforded myself was a little mechanical typewriter. Prized possession safely home, I set about finding that most important of supplies - typing paper.
You see, up there people use a paper that is something like tissue paper - really thin stuff used in carbon forms and hand-written receipts in Hong Kong. Every time I went to a store and asked for typewriter paper, that is what I got. Even with five sheets in the machine, the typewriter cut the paper to shreds with every typed character.
Lexmark is a latecomer to the China printer market. But, as a result, the company has tried harder to innovate and localise its company and products for the mainland.
Of all the companies selling printers in China, Lexmark is the only one I have seen so far than has hired a mainland native to head its operations.
And Lexmark's inkjet printers are the first I have seen that can handle the mainland's delicate paper. All Lexmark inkjets can handle this very thin paper, according to Zhao Liming, Lexmark's new president for greater China and Korea.
Mr Zhao, a Beijing native who has spent the past 15 years in the US, says the inks, which are the same as those sold everywhere, have been reformulated to print sharp text on Chinese paper.
Two years ago, Lexmark had only three people in its Hong Kong office. Last year it contracted two manufacturing plants in Shenzhen and Shanghai to build its printers. Now it is redoubling efforts to sell its printers in the mainland.
