Saudi-China friendship-From relations to innovations

This paper addresses the issue of reinforcing the existing friendship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the People´s Republic of China from a perspective of design and innovation. Since innovation represents the change the world is currently experiencing, the present researcher anticipates the Saudi-Chinese relationship including a persistent collaboration in design, innovation and entrepreneurship, particularly among the young generation. China is now exerting its best efforts to determine its own worthiness and overall strength in innovation. While Saudi Arabia has started creating its own innovation strategy based on its religion and culture, it needs worldwide as well as Chinese expertise to achieve innovation-based developments. Accordingly, this study opens horizons for designers and entrepreneurs in both countries to include their respective histories as an active incentive to develop more creative partnerships from the perspective of design and innovation. Furthermore, the case study in this paper will lead young designers and entrepreneurs to take into account the importance of handicrafts and traditional industries in recent interactive design systems for creative ideas and brands. This paper addresses in detail the researcher´s observations regarding the worth of a prestigious tradition in the Chinese culture, which has been practiced for over 3000 years. It is the “Kesi silk” tradition which is considered one of the most creative and innovative embroidery craftworks in the world. In China, one inch of Kesi silk is considered to be equal to one ounce of gold. The paper concludes that we need to deal with the handicraft parallel with the globalization market in order to reach beyond the borders of its origin, increase the opportunities for its use, and connect its artisans with the young generation of designers, innovators and entrepreneurs to benefit from their experience and discover new creative approaches collaboratively.