My grandmother's good china
One generation ago, imports from China were exotic, high quality, painstakingly hand made and much sought after. Willow-ware dishes replicated Ming and other dynasty's attentiveness to detail and careful calligraphic painting techniques. These beautiful sets of dinnerware were treasures in breakfront cabinets whose wood work was carved to match the care invested into the "china" itself.
Today's Chinese products have shamefully divorced themselves from any relation to their ancestral exports. Chinese made products are the epitome of cheap, low budget, low cost, labor intensive, and now unsafe and toxic products.
What a shame to have a country's economy represent a moral bankruptcy. What happened in one quick generation ? Did Chinese pride die, or simply take a back seat to immediate survival ? Do you and I make the sort of daily decisions that the Chinese mid-level manager must be making to feed into this fiasco ? In what ways are we acting out the same compromises without even realizing our mirrored actions ? Is this a human nature that we are simply not recognizing as a result of the scale or subtlety of our own compromises ?
When we don't turn off the light when we leave a room and we tilt our head and wink one eye to let ourselves off the hook that one time ? When we don't turn off the water when its running while we brush our teeth ? While we are too lazy to transfer the food from tupperware into glass or ceramic to heat in the microwave ? When we throw away something rather than recycle it ? When we let our shoe lie there crooked against the shoe rack ?
Are our under-achievements and lack of care and attentiveness in the same general family as the Chinese officials who repeat the same compromises with products and exports ?
Today's Chinese products have shamefully divorced themselves from any relation to their ancestral exports. Chinese made products are the epitome of cheap, low budget, low cost, labor intensive, and now unsafe and toxic products.
What a shame to have a country's economy represent a moral bankruptcy. What happened in one quick generation ? Did Chinese pride die, or simply take a back seat to immediate survival ? Do you and I make the sort of daily decisions that the Chinese mid-level manager must be making to feed into this fiasco ? In what ways are we acting out the same compromises without even realizing our mirrored actions ? Is this a human nature that we are simply not recognizing as a result of the scale or subtlety of our own compromises ?
When we don't turn off the light when we leave a room and we tilt our head and wink one eye to let ourselves off the hook that one time ? When we don't turn off the water when its running while we brush our teeth ? While we are too lazy to transfer the food from tupperware into glass or ceramic to heat in the microwave ? When we throw away something rather than recycle it ? When we let our shoe lie there crooked against the shoe rack ?
Are our under-achievements and lack of care and attentiveness in the same general family as the Chinese officials who repeat the same compromises with products and exports ?