Thank you to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for sending me a free ARC copy in exchange for an honest review. 

 

My thoughts on this book are conflicting. On one hand, this is an extremely important topic that definitely needs more discourse and considerable policy change. On the other, I did not enjoy this book and think it could have been much more effective. 

 

Before I jump into my review, I think I need to share the position I’m coming from. For as long as I can remember, my family has always tried to avoid purchasing products made in China, something I rarely see others discuss. I don’t know where this decision originally came from, but growing up I always thought it was because these products were considered poor quality or there were concerns about toxic chemicals, not that it was a system of exploitation further fueled by global consumerism. I do remember the curious looks from my friends whenever I would share that my family tried to avoid products made in China; the thought of avoiding specific manufacturing locations had never crossed their minds. In fact, the term “ethical consumption” has only entered my vocabulary within the past two years; clearly there is substantial room for consumer education and progressive change. 

 

I was looking forward to reading Made in China because my family and I still try to avoid products made in China (although it can be extremely difficult to impossible in some instances), and I now know the reasons we avoid products made in China are much more complex than simply “it’s cheaply made”. My hope for Made in China was that would help me gain a better insight of why my family would have originally made the decision to avoid products made in China and evaluate if we were right in sticking to that decision. 

 

In short, the answer is yes: we will continue to avoid, to the best of our ability and resources (and because we have that flexibility in most instances), products made in China. Made in China explains in detail the laogai system (which translates to “reform through labor” but really means forced-labor in essentially concentration camps) and the multitude of human rights violations that go into manufacturing cheap products for the rest of the world to consume. I think it’s also important to note that “cheap” products just mean somewhere in the manufacturing process corners have been cut, and more often than not it's the workers creating the product that suffer, not the company’s profits. 

 

However, there are two main reasons I could not rate this book any higher. First, I don’t believe I would have read this book if I knew it contained graphic descriptions of torture, and because this content was never disclosed (in any promotional blurb or as a content warning at the beginning of the book), it has negatively affected my rating. Graphic descriptions of sensitive topics (such as torture) are definite deal-breakers for me. 

 

Second, while this book does cover many aspects of this issue, it fails to cover several important points, including: 1) the role of capitalism and big business in pressuring these systems to continue with their current loopholes and horrific conditions, and 2) the privilege of being able to use your purchasing power (such as my family does) to avoid the cheapest options of products: those who do not have financial flexibility LITERALLY don’t have any other options and can’t afford to buy the higher quality item. 

 

Overall, I’m still not completely sure how I feel about this book. It could have been less graphic and been much more effective, for my reading tastes anyways. It’s not that this story should not be told, it’s that it could be told in a different way. The fact that China is violating human rights in such blatant attempt to eradicate dissidents and ethnic and religious minorities from their culture needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Hopefully, Made in China will be the last stone needed to bring an avalanche of awareness and momentum to this issue. 

 

Thank you again to NetGalley and Algonquin Books for the privilege of reviewing an ARC.