A year without “Made in China"

In 2006, the author and her family did “an objective experiment in globalization” (p.197) by boycotting Chinese products for a year.

What do you think?

Here were some responses from her family, friends and the people she met in the stores:

“You’ll be naked and broke. You’re a dreamer if you think you can fill your daily needs with things made in America. That’s a thing of the past. The whole basis of the American economy is people buying a bunch of stuff, and China makes it easier for them to do it by making it cheaper. People eat up everything China makes.” (p.18)

“ ‘If only there were more people like you.’ Yes, I think, bringing her sentence to its logical conclusion, we could save the world, or at least a few American jobs.” (p.22)

“You know what you are doing? You are delaying your dependence on China, not escaping it. You’re also kidding yourself,” her husband grumbled. (p.97)

“Do we not like china? Are they not nice to people? Then how come we don’t buy China things?” her eight-year-old son puzzled. (p.100-101)

“The clerk at the grocery store walked away from me without answering when I asked where a T-shirt was made. I think he considered it harassment,” (p.107) reported when her husband was on a business trip in France.

What do you think she and her family may encounter in 2006?

Here are the lessons that she learned in the experiment:

She took two weeks to find sneakers for her son that were made in Italy and charged US$68. Whereas, a similar Chinese product sold US$9 in Wal-Mart.

“…there is no longer such thing as an American-made lamp, at least not strictly speaking. The lamp … is probably as American as a lamp can get these days, but … with China contributing essential parts.” (p.80)

When she looked around the house she saw a series of problems (jammed stereo, the erratic television, the bladeless blender, the powerless vacuum cleaner, the printer with dry up cartridge, the broken drawer, the broken sunglasses, the run out of Chinese staples ), almost all of them with Chinese solutions. (p.99-10, 106)

She was not sure whether should consider Made in Hong Kong, Made in Macau and Made in Taiwan items Chinese or not. She also wondered whether anybody bothers to explain to Chinese workers who Jesus is when they paint his figurines, the meaning of “Let Freedom Ring” and “God Bless America” when they made the decorations for America’s National Day. (p.90, 96)

Do you think she can make it?

Bongiorni, Sara. (2007). A year without “Made in China”. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.