I didn't expect "electric cooker" to become a buzzword at the two sessions this year, given that "toilet seat" aroused heated discussions with Premier Li Keqiang at last year's event.

Perhaps it's because Chinese tourists to Japan haven't stopped their shopping spree.

It made news headlines during Spring Festival holiday last year that Chinese tourists flew several thousand kilometers to buy Japanese brand toilet seats and electric rice cookers.

The phenomenon is embarrassing to Chinese companies. As Dong Mingzhu, president of Gree Electric Appliances Inc and a deputy to the National People's Congress, put it: "There is no excuse, with so many manufacturers in China, for not making a good electric cooker."

Gree released a new model electric cooker using inductive heat technology on Tuesday and conducted a blind taste test, inviting about 100 guests to compare rice made in its cooker with that produced by foreign branded appliances.

Lei Jun, an NPC deputy and CEO of Xiaomi Corp, also brought up the same topic in his speech to the delegation from Guangdong province.

"At first I thought Chinese people had blind faith in the quality of foreign products. But later I discovered, after research, that Japanese makers do have a technological edge," Lei said. "While Chinese models can cook rice thoroughly, Japanese models can cook rice beautifully, making the rice dance."

According to the Ministry of Commerce, Chinese tourists spent about 1.2 trillion yuan ($185 billion) overseas in 2015.

Lei said the reason behind Chinese shopping sprees overseas is that the quality of many products made in China fails to meet the expectations of consumers with greater spending power.

"As China's economy develops, Chinese people's spending power has been greatly elevated. However, we are oversupplying shoddy goods now, and there is a critical shortage of refined goods that Chinese consumers need," he said.

"To keep consumers home, Chinese manufacturers need to improve the design and quality of their products and increase efficiency to offer great buys," he added.

Providing a solution, Premier Li noted "the spirit of craftsmanship" in his Government Work Report to top legislators and advisers on March 5.

He said the country will encourage enterprises to foster a spirit of striving for the best, so that more high-quality products will be made.

It was the first time the spirit of craftsmanship was mentioned in a work report, although in recent years it has often been heard from the lips of manufacturers in Guangdong province, the country's manufacturing base and foreign trade hub. Yuan Liqun, an NPC deputy and vice-president of Midea Group, mentioned it during an interview the day before.

The household goods giant, based in Foshan, Guangdong, introduced a high-end IH rice cooker in Japan in April last year, challenging Japanese competitors in their own country.

Yuan said that to find the best water-to-rice proportion, an R & D technician spent one year cooking a total of 2 metric tons of rice, enough to feed a family of four for eight years.

Nine types of rice were tested and a different cooking mode designed for each, Yuan said.

"The manufacturing industry should advocate the spirit of craftsmanship," she said. "Only when we are willing to endure the loneliness of burying ourselves in the task－to work out the best design and production models－can we make products that are widely praised by consumers."

I have worked as a correspondent in Guangdong for four years and written a lot about the manufacturing sector there. I have seen modern factories that wowed me with robots like Transformers and showrooms filled with patent certificates.

But I'm so happy to have heard about the electric cooker that showcases Chinese manufacturers' pursuit of craftsmanship.

There may be a long way to go for made-in-China products to earn a new image in the world, but we're on our way.

Contact the writer at xujingxi@chinadaily.com.cn