'There are some issues that particularly affect Chinese designers here, and this was a way for them to talk about them, and also get some needed attention for their work.'

The association developed out of an informal group started by White and other graduates, mostly from London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, and last year it secured the backing of the Chinese embassy and the British Council.

China's reputation as a manufacturing hub, combined with the negative publicity about its quality control and the youth of its design scene, can weigh heavily on Chinese designers looking to make it big overseas.

Many move to Britain for a more cosmopolitan education and a stronger cultural design heritage, and hope to stay on and develop their career afterwards. But recognition is hard to come by, and they face stiff competition from their better-placed European counterparts. China is not yet widely known for design talent, despite efforts by the government to reposition the country through events, trade agreements, and by promoting the cultural and creative fields as new industry pillars.

Staffan Tollgard runs a high-end interior-design studio in London's Notting Hill and credits Asian design as a strong influence in his work, but he believes that the manufacturing stereotype has done damage.

This year he co-established a company, Kurate, to promote and import products by Chinese-based designers, but he expects that, despite the success of the studios he's working with, which include Neri & Hu, MWV and HC28, he has a task ahead in educating the British consumer. 'We're basically saying that there are some really interesting things coming out of China at the moment, so please, rethink your idea that it's just a copying nation,' he says. 'The closeness of the designers with manufacturers there, for example, means that prototypes are quicker to make and modify. We're really seeing capabilities being pushed.'

In this sense, initiatives such as UCADA's that challenge conceptions of modern Chinese art and design are coming at the right time. Last year David Jia, who founded one of China's most successful industrial manufacturing firms, LKK Design, opened a branch in London - his first outside China - and he sees the obstacles as unavoidable.

'It's going to be a hard road: we have to change the European mentality about China's ability to do good design, and there are always problems of cultural understanding, and of detailed communication between designer and customer,' he says. 'But they can be overcome. And it's our responsibility as a leader in this field in China to try to open this path.'

Through working with diaspora designers, UCADA organisers have come across other issues that need addressing. 'Many young Chinese designers who arrive in London to study are less likely to have or build a good network, or self-promote in the way that others do, partly because of language difficulties and a lack of confidence,' says Lucy Shum, who directs the UCADA festival.

Some of the exhibitors agree. Taiwanese designer Hsiang Wang says that he struggled to find contacts and exhibition opportunities in Britain after completing his master's degree. Shanghai-based Zhili Liu, designer of the delicate Shrub table, describes the isolation of a degree at Coventry University, which he achieved mostly working alone.

UCADA has responded by setting up dialogues between British and Chinese designers, and an award for emerging Chinese talent.

And, following the exhibition's successful run at the Beijing International Design Week last month as part of its London Guest City programme, UCADA is hunting for other overseas exhibitions to join. Funding is a problem, however. Architect Guangyuan Li and his design partner Mohamed el-Khayat took their Reading Chair to the last Milan Furniture Fair and were pleased with the interest and the opportunities that followed. Yet the chair alone cost them GBP2,000 (HK$25,000) to transport; they found they were unable to afford the Beijing event, even though the chair would have made a splash in a relatively commercial programme.

The British experience can be quite different for Chinese architects. Na Li works for Foster + Partners and exhibited her design for a Buddhist temple at Cheers. Ten years in Britain have given her a comfortable grasp of British sensibilities, and she believes that her background adds value to her resume. 'In a bigger company, as someone who can speak Mandarin and understand the cultural landscape, you can help it make a lot of connections in China,' she says.

'And although I benefited from the more open methodologies here in terms of exploring my work, I feel that I'm still able, like a Spanish, French or any other nationality architect, to bring a fresh perspective.'

The position of this diaspora community between East and West holds promise. Alice Wang, designer of the noise-amplifying Silent Farter chair, designed to prevent guests hiding behind anonymity, and the Constant Shaker chair, which calculates calories burned by a fidgeter, opened her Taiwanese-based studio following eight years in London. She says cross-cultural designers can fill the gap between experimental design and the products making it to the shelves.

'Being trained for a few years in Asia focuses you on how to keep the price minimal. In Europe they often care more about the concept, the humour or the theory behind a design, but can struggle to bring these ideas into manufacturing. Merging the two could only be positive.'

Boosting such opportunities and firming up the connection between the two regions could help China's design credentials develop.

As more internationally trained designers and architects are returning to China to become industry leaders, they bring with them the aspirations of older design cultures in which design is infused into every environment - each bin and bus stop - rather than something found in galleries and appreciated only in creative circles. In this way, 'Designed in China' may some day take on some broad-based resonance.

'At the moment I think there's a wall between China and Europe, and it's hard for us to see what we're doing on each side,' says Na Li. 'But we both want to. I think it's definitely time for us to try to close the gap.'