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Blayne Bradley Reviews “Made Poorly in China” – First Impressions

So alright then, this will be my first modest attempt at a videoblog style review ala Zero Punctuation, a series of short video cartoons on the internet that reviews video games in a fast paced accentuate the negative psychotic style of speaking hence the title. Where I differ from the legion of imitators is that I will be using not Yahtzee’s stick figures but Rich Burlew’s instead an art style that I have been practicing for the last 3 weeks while working on my webcomics Quod Erat Faciendum and Senatus Populus Que Tyrannus, comics about my life and an my Dragon themed DnD setting respectively.

So the book then! The books title is “Poorly Made in China” as it is naturally a book about China’s fast growing industry and focusing on the manufacturing aspect thereof and supposedly the effort its leaders and people are going through to become and stay #1 fastest growing economy and what efforts or lack thereof are going into the quality control, now why this is a first impressions rather then a full review is that I only had roughly five minutes to barely cover the first chapter before I had to leave Chapters so I will be covering the book from its first chapter which if you think about it is probably a fair rule of thumb, if the book can’t make some kind of point and get you interested in the first chapter then its not really worth buying now is it? Generally I avoided the book itself since I first saw it roughly 6 months ago because I happen to LIKE China in the same way most Western Anime Otaku’s are rapidly obsessed with the Japanese so you can see what I mean but I decided to give the book the whirl whatever negative portrayal of China it renders be damned.

You will if you’re my regular readers from Hatrack be fairly surprised to find out that I actually really liked the book despite its implied premise the first Chapter wasn’t particularly long or exciting but damn was it interesting. Basically whom I suppose if an American businessman or reporter type guy has been working in Southern China for a few years now and at a friends or business partners request went to tour a given factory in China that apparently makes day to day crap like soap and shampoo. He meets the owner of the factory who western media would probably portray as some sort of Nazi Communist wearing a uniform barking insane orders and waving an AK47 while oppressing his workers and Tibetans but as it turns out is a friendly attractive Chinese woman which as redundancies go that takes the cake, I mean since when is a Chinese woman not attractive? But anyways he goes through a tour of the factory taking a good look at all the workers expecting something suspicious as his partner had asked him to watch out for anything beyond the ordinary which as James Bond plots go is alright start to a zaney adventure so all right lets run with it, he notices a few things A) All the workers absolutely refuse to make eye contact but thinks nothing of it, and B) all of them appeared to be working really REALLY hard at their jobs. Which confused me, why would he find probably the one positive attached stereotype of Chinese workers weird? But anyways at one point he meets a girl whose seemed to be working on her first day at the factory when the factory manager touched his arm and steered him outside of the factory.

That’s it, that’s all folks an end of a glorious tour which was C) the tour was pretty short. A very interesting exchange of thoughts is given by the writer of several minor tidbits of Chinese culture at this point something about him for a moment being weirded out by the touch as usually touching is apparently a very intimate act even a light push or holding of his arm but he took it after that moment as it what it really was a subtle hint that it was time to leave.
Now while I like reading books that talk about how people in China really act and what not but I wasn’t sure what the punch line was and it seemed the writer was just as confused as I was as he wasn’t sure what precisely was out of the ordinary and was being herded to where he would be meeting his driver to go to the airport to return to another city. However his cab was apparently running late and the manager had parted to attend to other matters and decided that out of curiosity to return back to the factory as no one would notice him gone for 5 minutes and peered through the windows.
And then came the first WTF moment of the book as he say NOTHING, zilch, nadda, all the workers had scrammed and aside from one janitor cleaning the place it was empty. Whaaa? Is all I could think in surprise and apparently the whom I suppose is an American thinking as well after a minute or two hears the clack clack of heels and notices the woman standing behind him with a forced smile. The man obviously feeling guilty is very confused and doesn’t ask what is most on his and my mind wtf?
Later he’s on the phone with his partner whom we learn is named “Bernie” whom conjures saddening images of entertainer Bernie Mac to me but anyways not sure what he saw at first only mentions general things about the tour until asked if he saw anything unusual. And then the punchline as after he explains the ghost factory Bernie lolz and explains after asking some seemingly random questions about whether the warehouse was empty or not that “they must be desperate for my business” which hit me like a punch to the face. Lelouch or Light from Death Note couldn’t have planned a Xanatos Exchange better then this! Amazing! The Manager gave the impression of a hardworking factory I think to strengthen their bargaining power with Bernie while Bernie suspecting this sent his Pawn there specifically to see if anything is up with the place specifically to strengthen HIS bargaining power! Awesome! I immediately set out to see if my father would buy the book for me as I was flat broke but as it turns out he was just as broke as me the punk.

So that’s the book so far with a premise that the end of that chapter makes me want to buy it and read it to completion and those of you whom study China should get it as well.

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