I have learned so much about the country through the children's works--all of the symbols, the beauty and elegance, thousands of years of history. I think the sense of history, the people and the hope will be must-have elements in my designs for China. It has been a lot of fun learning about different cultures and doing justice to them.

Why did Google hold a doodle competition for children?

We have held Doodle 4 Google in many other countries, as I mentioned earlier. It originated in the United Kingdom, where we held a small pilot competition.

The autograph from Dennis Hwang for Beijing Review (CHEN RAN)

Having an art competition is pretty unusual for a company to support. The reason behind it was to give back to the community and celebrate the arts--Google has been successful because of our users.

We highlight beautiful art works by children and give schools aid to improve their art education programs. [Doodle 4 Google] has been a very successful celebration of the arts in many cities. More importantly, the competition will send positive impressions to the global Google audience.

How do you view the Google doodle culture? Is it local or global?

The origins of the Google doodle are interesting. A lot of companies were reluctant to change their logos at the time because branding and marketing textbooks taught us the logo was very important and you should not change it because it will confuse your audience. In other words, the doodle was a kind of innovation and risk-taking.

So we thought, why not change it? We can have fun with it and we can tell our users that we are celebrating the same occasions, like Chinese New Year, as they do. It's a very positive thing to do. The attention to the logo culture is what Google cares about, as the Internet is growing fast and connecting the world closer. We are having a lot of fun with it.

It is a very organic and natural process to change logos. We don't have a fixed date or schedule for the change. We take suggestions from users all over the world. If the idea is about celebrating creativity, innovation or technical achievements, Google will make efforts to create a design together with users. We have a tradition of celebrating world sporting events, such as the World Cup and the Olympics. In August 2008, our team was very busy with the Beijing Olympics; we did our best to celebrate the significant event worldwide.

I think the Google doodle is a combination of localization and globalization. On one hand, we are celebrating the logo culture with local children and schools through the Doodle 4 Google competition. On the other hand, because of its size and the influence that Google has in the world, anything we do tends to raise awareness worldwide. We are telling the world how great these kids are via the event.

Do you have any ideas for the doodle for the upcoming Chinese lunar New Year?

The upcoming Chinese lunar New Year will be the Year of Ox. I won't reveal any secrets about this because we want the design to be a surprise. I'll let the audience guess what the design will be.