Gift Talk
Dear friends,
Since when I wrote my last root that was longer than 1k, I can't remember. I feel that either the lack of writing materials or the laziness of my mind has been
slowly turning my written English into a zombie. I've been reading and translating, yes, but it's quite different from writing. It's time to change that, I told myself for countless times, but again, anything seemed more urgent to do than staring at Word for a few hours just for pure joy. So I've been putting it off, off, and off until...
"Here is your package from the United States."
It has finally got there after a long journey across the ocean! I've been worried that it might get lost after going through so many hubs. Fortunately, it was
delivered to the right place after more than two weeks of shipping. The big box contained some desired gifts from a friend of mine in America. These are merchandise of the Warner Brothers, the world-renowned film-maker, so these are basically American goods. Or are they really...?
About a century ago, you could place an equal sign between American goods and luxuries. They run the gamut between clothes and cars, foods and pills, techs and
arts. The rich bought them with high price tags, and they rejoiced at the sight of "Made in U.S.A".
Long, hard years passed. Established firmly on this land was the Communist Party, our party in power to this day. With that soon came an irresistible blow of
anti-American morale sweeping across our proud nation. Chinese people hence began to explore in technologies as never before in history. In the news success always beat failure. The first sedan branded with the name of Hongqi (Red Flag, literally) paced out on the street. While only our Prime Minister Zhou and other
leaders could sit in the car, every family was right to believe that one of those days they would be able to use modern commodities entirely "made in China".
Time didn't stop there as it never would. The zest of anti-westernism was dying
away as China opened her windows to the world. Western movies, restaurants, and "white" people were marching in over the windowsills. Our young people were fascinated and inspired. They liked something that looked different and foreign.
"Made in U.S.A." was thus getting popular again. The Hongqi that once directly
showed the owner’s social status retreated to a shabby shelter, when foreign brands hit the market. English and the World Wide Web helped that, too. What is
most important, however, people discovered something that made their hearts go
America: the quality. Our then Prime Minister Zhu once exclaimed, "My U. S. A.-
made nail scissors just do better work than their Chinese fellows!"
Time has run passed the spring of 2006. Here I am, examining my WB gifts one after another. I am ecstatic. They are exquisitely crafted. The lines have no sharp turnings and the wooden knots feel smooth. The chenille is so warm and comfortable to the skin. As I pick up one of the boxes, three small words on the back of the box catch my eye. "Crafted in China". I grabbed another, and again,
crafted in China. I doubtfully go for the last and most expensive one, turn it
slowly, and here it is: Made in China!
"Made in China?!" I choked.
Minutes later I wrote a thank-you note to that friend, in which I told him my astounding discovery, but he simply said, "I tell you, it is hard to find anything
not made in China any more."
The world indeed has become flat, with outsourcing everywhere.
What is outsourcing? Some of you may ask. My Dr. Eye puts it this way, "To purchase accessories from outside the country." I know this answer isn’t quite satisfactory, so I turned to my e-copy of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. "When a company uses workers from outside the company to do a job." But
it will simply trigger more questions. What good will it do? Will the cost stay put when the company manages workers far away? Is this important, after all?
To better illustrate the idea, I'll take translation businesses for example. Xinjiang is where I live, and where the overall translation price is much lower than the South. If a translation agent in Shanghai is smart enough, he will "outsource" translation orders to this Western region for lower cost. Probably he will find me to do some of the urgent work in the evening. Few people in Shanghai
would willingly stay up to 12:00 or 1:00 in the morning, working, but that's the time when many Xinjiang people go to bed. What if the agent is in New York or
Toronto? What if he does other business like taxes or manufacture or even things in the medical world? Then we can keep the work flow nonstop till it’s finished without any deprivation of sleep.
Cost and time are his advantages.
They are great advantages for me, as well. I can take more orders, local and from Shanghai, at a fairly good price. As things develop, I can be an agent of my
own to outsource work to other people. All is possible now to be an information worker as the internet "walks" in almost every corner of the world.
Of course, my example only covers a very small piece of the cake. When certain jobs (Mostly low intelligence ones) are outsourced, the target individuals receive more information and money than others, which will help them build or develop
the finance and education. These two are vital if one wants to move up on the social ladder. The individuals, if there is a large number of them in a particular area, thus can make significant influences in one way or another.
When many a thread of outsourcing crisscrosses around the globe, the big, big playing field is being leveled. The poor Indian people are able to compete with the rich Americans. An officer may share information with his leader. The challenged may challenge the advantaged. It is a significantly important change.
Now. I am smiling at a vision that someone in the United States receives quite a
shock after ripping some gift box sent over from China. I hear a cry with my mind's ear: What? Made in U. S. A.?!
Warmly, Jenny
