People's republic of cool

For China's baby-boomers it's 'nostal-chic' - communist-era products that bring back childhood memories; for the generation Xers, the country's first post-poverty group, it's 'retro styling'; for westerners, it's 'communist chic' and reveals images of a mysterious life behind an iron curtain; and for style gurus and entrepreneurs, it's the beginning of a new revolution: China Cool.

Deng Xiaoping puffed his way through hundreds of packets of Double Happiness cigarettes; former United States president George Bush Snr rode around Beijing on a Flying Pigeon bicycle during his tour of duty at the US embassy there in the 1970s; and former prime minister Zhou Enlai kept time with a Shanghai wrist-watch. By any stretch of the imagination, these men are hardly icons of style, but the items they smoked, rode and passed the time with are fast becoming the brands that define a person's position in the hierarchy of chic.

China's domestic brands appear to have gone full circle. Forty years ago, locally produced brands were almost all that was available. That changed after 1978, when economic reforms opened the door for foreign imports. Throughout the 80s and 90s and to some extent today, west was best - bringing many of the country's cost-hungry, inefficient manufacturers to their knees.

The country's nouveaux riche now flaunt their success through western brands: Nike trainers, Canon cameras and Mercedes-Benz. They eschew old China as an embarrassing reminder of the country's status as a developing nation.

'China saw western success as a result of its product design, so it followed the western model,' says Lorraine Justice, head of the school of design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. 'The question for Chinese designers and companies today is, do we look at what Japan and Korea have done or do we stay true to our Asian roots?'

A sophisticated, hip generation has arisen that could help save a slice of China's recent past. This generation has grown up with the internet and outgrown the vacuousness of the

MTV era; it is an entrepreneurial group with a better standard of living, education and eye for style than its predecessors.