Are Australians becoming much more Asian? Is the old-style Australian "culture" taking a back seat?
That's certainly the view of Blackmores chief executive, Christine Holgate. And that belief is at the core of the company's vitamin strategy in Australia and why she believes Blackmores will be enormously successful in China.
If she is right, then a vast number of Australian companies need to rethink their strategies, including whether they have an opportunity to market in China. 
A second leg of the Blackmores strategy in Australia and China is that it's not all about price. Advice is valued. Already one of the best performing stocks on the ASX this year, Blackmores yesterday hit a fresh high, touching $220 a share before easing to close at $214.77, up $10.22 on the day.
And so, in Australia, Blackmores is basing much of its marketing around pharmacies rather than supermarkets. Pharmacies are predicted to die, but as far as Blackmores is concerned, pharmacies are winning because of the advice they give.
I asked Holgate what's happening to Australian and Asian diets that make people feel that they need to take vitamins.
"I think there are some big consumer trends happening," she replied. "First of all, we're actually becoming Asian. You can see that walking down any high street. You can see the growth in massage parlours or reflexology and traditional Chinese medicine.
"So instead of perhaps going for a pharma medicine, people are actually thinking of natural alternatives.
"Also, we're getting older and we want to be younger. The likelihood is that all of us reading this are going to live past the age of 90. We don't want to be in a chair between the ages of 70 and 90, so we're really looking at ways that we can actually improve our own health.
"So preventive health is becoming increasingly important for consumers and that's what Blackmores is all about. It's about focusing on wellness, so that's a hugetrend happening here in Australia.
"And in Asia, well, natural health is actually the DNA of the philosophy of those people and what we bring is a sort of very high-quality, Westernised version of a health method they're very used to having. So it's two slightly different things, but with the same outcome." The figures in China are mind-boggling.
The market is estimated at $US40 billion ($55.8bn), about $US20bn from vitamins and about $US20bn from medicinal food. That market is growing at 10 per cent a year, so each year the China market is estimated to grow by more than the total market in Australia.
The vitamins situation is being duplicated in other areas of health, including food and even education.
We are watching in Australia an enormous increase in Chinese buying of our residential real estate. We are not happy about the impact that is having on the price of real estate, but it is bringing the two communities closer together.
Recently the Chinese bought Blackmores' main vitamin rival in Australia, Swisse. Blackmores is teaching Australian companies that cultural ties between China and Australia and the respect they have for Australia gives us an advantage. We don't always have to compete on price.
For example, the Chinese vitamin market has been dominated by the American brands, but Australia not only has a really special relationship with China, but is renowned for quality. And that reputation applies throughout Asia.
In Thailand, Blackmores vitamins sell for 30 per cent above the local product, but Blackmores is the leading brand. Blackmores is moving into Indonesia.
Holgate's advice to Australian companies thrusting into China is to have patience.
In Australia, Blackmores sells far more high-value vitamins in local pharmacies than in supermarkets.
Are Woolworths and Coles asleep? Holgate says Woolworths and Coles have a very different retail proposition to the local pharmacist. At the supermarket, "mum walks up and down the aisle and she buys things off the shelf".
"For many of our products, it's best that the consumer gets advice and, when they want advice, the best place for them to go is to the pharmacy.
"For example, if you were having challenges with your eyesight and you were recommended Macu-Vision, a best-selling product of Blackmores, well, you would probably go to your pharmacist to get that advice - 'is that the right one ?'"The pharmacist talks about what other medicines you might be on and the possible interaction of those medicines." As Holgate says: "That's why for Blackmores, pharmacy works."