I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy of Sara Bongiorni's A Year Without "Made in China", though I have been anxious to write something about the book since it was released in June.
The book's title initially made me a little wary of the author's intentions. But I also knew I shouldn't make hasty judgments without reading it first.
Her commentaries, which are now readily available on the Internet, show that she is as objective as she can be.
"There's no way you can live anywhere near a normal life without buying things from China," Bongiorni keeps saying.
However, she only scratches the surface, looking at the "Made in China" labels from an American family's perspective.
As a Chinese, I've also experienced changes in my attitude toward the "Made in China" label. About 25 years ago, "Made in China" excited me and my pals, when we were still the first batch of Chinese mainland journalism students studying in the US.
Later, when I traveled overseas, I tried to avoid things that were "Made in China" when I shopped for gifts. There was no sense in me going all the way across the oceans or the Eurasian continent just to bring back keepsakes that I might spot at home.
However, this became so troublesome that I gave up looking a few years ago.
In fact, we are crystal clear in our understanding that "Made in China" means only Chinese hard labor.
"The patent, the designs, the business people are all from overseas," one netizen writes when commenting on an article about Bongiorni's book.
Except for the Chinese workers who made and attached "Made in China" labels to the products (for which they were paid pitifully little), very few Chinese actually see these products in China, other netizens pointed out.
What Chinese manufacturers and consumers should work on and advocate are truly Chinese brands and truly quality products patented, designed and created by Chinese.
Simon Anholt of the United Kingdom, compiles a national brands index to evaluate "the power and appeal of a nation's brand image" and shows "how the people around the world see the character of that brand".
According to this year's first quarter Anholt Nation Brands Index, China was in the top 10 "Brand Finance League Table", but its brand rating was minus BBB, against the US's AA, and Japan's and Germany's A-plus ratings.
Amidst the increasing international scrutiny of "Made in China" products, the government as well as individual manufacturers and consumers should really take pains to reexamine the fallout associated with "Made in China". We should clean our houses and establish and enforce strict regulations that are up to international standards.
If we continue to cling to the rhetoric of "discrimination" and "prejudice", "Made in China" will never be measured on par with "Made in Germany" or "Made in Japan" in the hearts of international consumers.
It is now a cliche to say that all nations are closely interconnected in the era of globalization.
One Chinese media commentator has pointed out that Chinese families may run into the same trouble that Bongiorni experienced if they tried living for a year without things with American brand.
I wouldn't try because I do not want to return to using a pen and paper to write my column, nor do I want to stop my daily chats with my sister in New York or my friends in London.
And every now and then I still have to order pizza from Pizza Hut just to change things up at dinner time.
E-mail: lixing@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 07/19/2007 page10)
