I think one of the huge differences in east vs west electronics/maker/hacker communities is the approach of DIY vs using production services. In the US, as a hobbyist with a limited budget, if you want to have a PCB made, you either send it off to OSH Park and wait weeks, or you try and make it yourself and get pretty low quality results. Here in Shenzhen, nobody even considers it. You upload the file to professional board house, and standard turn around is 3-4 days. For $30 more, you can get 24-hour turnaround.

So there's just this really different approach of "what can I make myself with the tools I own" versus "what professional services do I have access to, and which of my friends have factories with the right production equipment".

As a result, you see stark difference in quality of initial prototypes.

The flip side is that I think western makers/hackers are more focused on coming up with completely new ideas, with less of a focus on quality of execution, whereas a lot of chinese makers/hackers/manufacturers are more focused on iterative improvement - how can I be really clever to make something cheaper or easier to produce, that looks like a professional product. Both sides are very clever and creative, but focus on different aspects.