Posted on 12/19/2014 5:37:48 PM PST by Steelfish
Santa's Real Workshop: The Town In China That Makes The World's Christmas Decorations
Oliver Wainwright Friday 19 December 2014
There’s red on the ceiling and red on the floor, red dripping from the window sills and red globules splattered across the walls. It looks like the artist Anish Kapoor has been let loose with his wax cannon again. But this, in fact, is what the making of Christmas looks like; this is the very heart of the real Santa’s workshop – thousands of miles from the North Pole, in the Chinese city of Yiwu.
Our yuletide myth-making might like to imagine that Christmas is made by rosy-cheeked elves hammering away in a snow-bound log cabin somewhere in the Arctic Circle. But it’s not. The likelihood is that most of those baubles, tinsel and flashing LED lights you’ve draped liberally around your house came from Yiwu, 300km south of Shanghai – where there’s not a (real) pine tree nor (natural) snowflake in sight.
Christened “China’s Christmas village”, Yiwu is home to 600 factories that collectively churn out over 60% of all the world’s Christmas decorations and accessories, from glowing fibre-optic trees to felt Santa hats. The “elves” that staff these factories are mainly migrant labourers, working 12 hours a day for a maximum of £200 to £300 a month – and it turns out they’re not entirely sure what Christmas is.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Well, no problem. Congress will just raise corporate taxes (again) and make China richer....as our jobs and companies go down the crapper.
Communist China loves capitalism as long as they control every bit of it.
These factories sound subversive.
I don’t buy ANY Christmas decoration that has China stamped on it.
It’s funny because every year around this time I think of what it would be like if a U.S. company were to make some decent quality Christmas items. Whether ornaments or decorations or lights (indoor and/or outdoor), etc.
With automation and the regulations that certain quality measures be factored in, I’d think that a company could offer their wares at slightly higher prices than the Chinese stuff and still sell massive quantities because they’d (a) be made in America, and (b) be of better quality than the items on the next shelf or peg hook.
It would be worth it to pay $6 for something that’ll last 6 years instead of $1.99 every year.
The biggest downside would be federal and state regulations (not insurmountable, but definitely a pain) and the start-up costs for the equipment. And no, I’m not talking about the red-powder-sprayed styrofoam junk mentioned in the article. {{{shudder}}}}
Have you seen any Christmas lights not made in China, in the last fifteen years?
Dunno. I haven’t bought lights :) I’ve purchased ornaments made in Germany.
“working twelve hours a day for no more than £200-300 a month” and they aren’t sure what Christmas is ...
Lazy, greedy commies AND heathens.
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