Dura Nail Polish- USA
Plastic frame- China
Candle- USA
Urban Outfitters hand statue- China
Old Kodak Brownie Camera- London
Kodak film- USA
Small plastic unicorn figurine- China
Snow Globe -Taiwan
Instant Camera -China
Light up Moon Light -China
Nikon Camera Battery -China
Chanel Eyeshadow -France
Hairbrush -China
Goldfish shaped bowl -China
Japanese Moistureizer- China
Hairbands -China
Incense stick holder -India
Neanderthal shaped Eraser -China
Really cool frame -India
L'Oreal lipstick -USA
Perry the Platypus lanyard -China
Easel -USA
India ink -USA
Crayola chalk -China
This exercise mostly reinforced my previous conceptions about outsourcing and offshoring. Basically, nearly all of our everyday objects are made in China. It is austounding that a single country can produce so many diverse and seemingly compeltely culturally unrelated objects. I found it especially ironic that the Japanese moisturizer I bought from an asian cosmetics store was actually manufactured in China, not Japan. This trnd repeated with my "Japanese" Fujifilm camera being manufactured in China. I began to see two levels of outsourcing/importation. I also noted that this trend with China/Asia is a more recent development, as my vintage Kodak Brownie camera (it was my grandparent's in England) was actually produced in the city it was sold -London- whereas my modern kodak cameras bought in the US all list China as their place of manufacture. This is evidence of a seminal shift in product manufacturing that occured in the last 3rd of the 20th century- during which much of our manufacturing was outsourced to poorer countries like China, India, and Taiwan. In contrast, many products that claimed to be affiliated with a specific first world european country (L'oreal with France, Pablo easels with Italy, etcetera), shifted production from those expensive first world countries to less glamourus 1st world countries like Canada and the US, or developing 3rd world/2nd world countires like China, Taiwan and India.
Plastic frame- China
Candle- USA
Urban Outfitters hand statue- China
Old Kodak Brownie Camera- London
Kodak film- USA
Small plastic unicorn figurine- China
Snow Globe -Taiwan
Instant Camera -China
Light up Moon Light -China
Nikon Camera Battery -China
Chanel Eyeshadow -France
Hairbrush -China
Goldfish shaped bowl -China
Japanese Moistureizer- China
Hairbands -China
Incense stick holder -India
Neanderthal shaped Eraser -China
Really cool frame -India
L'Oreal lipstick -USA
Perry the Platypus lanyard -China
Easel -USA
India ink -USA
Crayola chalk -China
This exercise mostly reinforced my previous conceptions about outsourcing and offshoring. Basically, nearly all of our everyday objects are made in China. It is austounding that a single country can produce so many diverse and seemingly compeltely culturally unrelated objects. I found it especially ironic that the Japanese moisturizer I bought from an asian cosmetics store was actually manufactured in China, not Japan. This trnd repeated with my "Japanese" Fujifilm camera being manufactured in China. I began to see two levels of outsourcing/importation. I also noted that this trend with China/Asia is a more recent development, as my vintage Kodak Brownie camera (it was my grandparent's in England) was actually produced in the city it was sold -London- whereas my modern kodak cameras bought in the US all list China as their place of manufacture. This is evidence of a seminal shift in product manufacturing that occured in the last 3rd of the 20th century- during which much of our manufacturing was outsourced to poorer countries like China, India, and Taiwan. In contrast, many products that claimed to be affiliated with a specific first world european country (L'oreal with France, Pablo easels with Italy, etcetera), shifted production from those expensive first world countries to less glamourus 1st world countries like Canada and the US, or developing 3rd world/2nd world countires like China, Taiwan and India.
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