Granted the Chinese Kaya boards are not Hyuga Kaya from Japan, but that doesn't mean they are problematic boards as a result.
That's a good point. Economic pressures in China do create a manufacturing base that makes goods that are as inexpensive as possible - however, how can anyone apply this to a tree that's been growing in a Chinese forest since before the Norman invasion of England?
There's a unfair stigma associated with China - that everything Chinese must be bad and anything Japanese must be quality, but it's oversimplifying things. We have to remember that Chinese weiqi is still recovering from Mao's war on culture during the 60's, that defamed Go as one of the "four rotten pasts". People were forced into smashing up and burning some of the most beautiful and intricate works of art - I'm sure that many beautiful Go boards suffered the same fate. It takes time to recover from something like that.
There are hopeful signs of recovery already - the art of Yunzi has been rediscovered, for example. As the Chinese economy matures, I expect to see handmade Weiqi boards coming out of China, from independant artisans who rediscover and reinvent the ancient Chinese styles of Go equipment. We can all look forward to the renaissance of Chinese culture, especially as concerns Go. A nation with so rich a cultural heritage doesn't deserve anything less.
