Elsa Bosemark, 2026 SCCEI Study Program Participant

Elsa Bosemark, Design

Growing up in San Francisco and studying digital design at Stanford, I have spent much of my education thinking about how people interact with technology. That background was one of the reasons I was excited to participate in the SCCEI Summer Study Program. I wanted to experience China's technology ecosystem firsthand and better understand the environment that shaped it.

Looking back, the most valuable thing I gained from the program was the opportunity to practice a different kind of systems thinking. While Stanford's design curriculum encourages me to think about systems, that thinking is often centered on designing products, organizations, or user experiences. Through SCCEI, I had the opportunity to look at a national system from a broader economic perspective, considering how education, policy, and technology continuously shape one another.

As an example, before the program I primarily understood the Gaokao as a highly competitive college entrance exam. Through our visits to Fudan University and Ant Group, along with the supplementary readings, I learned how the Gaokao helps the government cultivate national STEM talent and reinforces a competitive tournament structure that has supported China's rapid economic growth. As someone who usually studies the products people create, I found it fascinating to step back and consider the conditions that shape the people creating them and, in turn, what those conditions enable the government and society to accomplish.

The company visits also encouraged me to revisit some of the common narratives about China that I had heard growing up. For example, before the trip I often heard that Chinese companies primarily succeeded by copying innovations developed elsewhere. Visiting these companies added nuance to this narrative. At Xiaomi, we saw how the company built upon ideas pioneered by Tesla but differentiated itself through technological integration and its ability to balance quality with affordability, supported by China's manufacturing capabilities. The factory itself was highly automated, producing a car every 45 seconds. At Shuanghuan Gear, we learned how the company initially recreated a Japanese gear to enter the industry and is now investing in creating original and custom gear technology for partners. Across these visits, a consistent theme emerged: companies viewed learning from existing ideas not as the destination, but as the starting point. Their goal is to become industry leaders themselves, supported by China's growing STEM talent pipeline. While the narrative that Chinese companies learn from successful products elsewhere contains some truth, it fails to capture the equally strong emphasis I observed on improving those ideas, investing in original innovation, and ultimately becoming global leaders in their own right.

Since returning home, I have already found myself sharing many of these conversations with friends and family. More importantly, I have noticed a change in the kinds of questions I ask. As I continue studying human-computer interaction and designing products of my own, I plan to carry that perspective forward. The ability to zoom out—from a product to the larger system around it—is something I’m excited to continue developing throughout my career. Given how interconnected the global technology industry has become, I know I will continue to encounter China's technology ecosystem throughout my career. This program gave me a valuable foundation for engaging with those future experiences with greater context, curiosity, and nuance.