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人 们倾向于认为创新是一种神秘的独立行为，而且他们一般都把作品简化为单独的概念。他们常说，这是一部关于玩具或者恐龙或者爱情的电影。然而，在电影制作以 及其它很多复杂产品的开发过程中，创新牵涉到很多不同领域的人们通过有效的协作来解决大量的问题。关于一部电影最初的创意——电影业中人们通常称之为"高 级概念"——只是一个长达四五年之久的艰苦长征的第一步而已。

“文革”期间来华访问的外国人，有几个地方是必被安排“参观”的，哪怕不去天坛、长城，这几个地方一定要让老外看。比如，上海江南造船厂制造的万吨水压机。那时的宣传称，这台设备赶上并超过了国际先进水平。

那时来中国的外国人，大多是有特殊背景的，基本都是中国政府的官方客人。接待者总要宣传这台水压机是如何“在毛泽东思想指引、在无产阶级文化大革命的鼓舞下，赶上或超过世界水平”。

终于一次，一位外国客人实在忍不住了，就问解说员：你知道当今世界上，水压机的先进水平是怎样的，你有技术参数吗？ 这个老外估计是搞工程技术的，他的问题一下让中国讲解员楞了，“不知道。”“不知道？那你怎么说这台一万吨的就是赶上和超过了世界先进水平啊？”后来，我们才知道，一万吨的水压机，外国在19世纪末就造出来了。

This lack of freedom stunts any real debate on the future of China. Thinking is still circumscribed. There are areas that are still taboo or where intellectuals can only hint at what they mean. In three vital spheres, this is deeply damaging to China’s national interest. The first is foreign policy. China has evolved in less than a generation into a world power, one now placed alongside America in a newly minted category of G2. But the country is uncertain how to exercise this power. And as long as the party restricts the debate to a known ideological framework, it cannot mobilise China’s vast intellectual capabilities to address this. The second area, intellectual property, is equally damaged. As long as there is no real freedom to question the foundations of society, China will not produce innovators. It will be able to copy and develop, but not to outstrip competitors and set the framework for the world. And the third area is the legitimate assertion of religious and regional identities alongside Chinese citizenship.

What can Facebook and Western social networks learn, if anything? If monetizing a social network is so easy, then why hasn’t Facebook opened up its payment API to third party developers? While the aggressive and intrusive hyper-viral aspects of the apps in China may not be replicable in a Western Market, the problems for creating a more viable business model run deeper. Western companies cannot innovate in the same way due to institutional problems stemming from their own struggle for an identity and revenue. Facebook has just recently announced a “credits” system, but it seems to miss the mark. The new system demonstrates little incentive for users to shell over money, and does not speak to the same need as paying for a social application that all your friends are already on and talking about. Facebook may be afraid to become a marketplace for applications, because they are reluctant to be labeled as a social gaming network or a social app store. Instead, they are a self-styled guru of dynamic human interaction. If they opened up their platform to become an apps store, their major revenue streams would put them into a pigeonhole, calling their $15 billion valuation into question. They obviously don’t want to be labeled as a “gaming platform” either, and don’t want to fully depend on selling digital trinkets. Like during the American gold rush in 1849, where Chinese merchants prospered while most prospectors went bust in search of striking gold, it appears that building viable, scalable businesses for Social Networking sites may still be an ancient Chinese secret for Westerners.