Reviewed by Isabel T. Escoda
Nine product labels out of 10 say “Made in China”. Most people realize that China has turned globalization to its advantage. The flood of Chinese-made goods prompts experts to say we live in a “Chinese century”.
The near-impossibility to find daily necessities other than those from China overwhelmed American journalist Sara Bongiorni as she and her family opened Christmas gifts in 2004. She wondered if other countries still made the things most humans need -- like appliances, clothes, stationery and toys.
So she decided to see if she and her family could go without Chinese goods for a year. As she says in a highly entertaining book, A Year Without ‘Made in China’, One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy (2008, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey, 228 pages), the decision to “kick China out of our house” wasn't politically motivated. She just wanted to see if an ordinary family could get along without Chinese goods. And she wanted to know how much still was made in the US (not much) and what came from other countries (a few odds and ends).
When Sara suggested the experiment, her husband reacted skeptically, wondering if their two young children would cope, especially four-year-old Wes, a fan of trucks, robots and electronic games. The ensuing efforts, wryly narrated by the author, proved time-consuming, expensive and often hilarious. She searched catalogs and the Internet, traveled to distant stores and annoyed salespeople by always asking about the “country of origin”. But some store employees took an interest and told her to “Go for it!” Her soft-hearted mother needled her for depriving workers in China's sweatshops of their livelihoods.
When a printer cartridge needed replacing, Sara coaxed her husband to let her use his office machine because non-Chinese parts don't exist. When he lost his expensive European sunglasses, he resisted buying a cheap Chinese pair and used his old ski-goggles, which drew curious looks.
Presuming that most foodstuffs were still American or European, Sara reached a low point when learning that tinned tangerines and Christmas candy-canes come from China. On her son's birthday, candles and toys posed huge problems. But by the next Christmas, she'd found toys from Thailand and Romania and clothes from Mexico.
Luckily, the melamine-in-milk scandal erupted after Sara finished the book or she might have been tempted to feel self-righteous for avoiding toxic Chinese products. Presumably, the experiment made her regretful about America's dwindling industrial and competitive power, but she held no animosity towards China.
Approval rating: 90 per cent.
(February 26, 2009)
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