- BEIJING (Agence France Presse)
- Santa's elves no longer come from the North Pole, but places called Guangdong,
Zhejiang and Jiangsu in China.
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- China has become one of the world's biggest, if not the
biggest, producer of Christmas toys and decorative items.
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- From January to September each year, coastal Chinese
provinces like Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu hum with activity in preparation
for the holiday.
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- Everything from artificial trees, Christmas stockings,
angels, and ornaments adorning homes in the United States, Europe and elsewhere
are more likely to come from China than any other country.
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- Cheap labor and increasingly competitive designs and
quality have helped China overtake places such as the Philippines, Thailand
and Taiwan as top maker of Christmas merchandise in the past few years,
industry officials said.
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- And orders are going up year by year.
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- In the first 10 months of this year, China's exports
of Christmas handicrafts increased by 30.5 percent to 820 million US dollars,
compared to the same period last year, according to statistics from China's
Light Industry Handicrafts Import and Export Chamber of Commerce.
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- The figure is greater than the entire amount of exports
in 1999.
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- "This year business is very good because the US
economy is good and consumer spending is quite high," said Cai Rong,
a manager at the Jiangsu Arts and Crafts Import and Export Group Corp.,
which specializes in making Christmas stockings in the eastern coastal
province of Jiangsu.
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- Christmas products made in China are mainly exported
to the United States, Europe, South America, Middle East, Japan and South
Korea.
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- Millions of people unable to earn a decent living in
the countryside are working in factories whose main job for most of the
year is churning out Yuletide goods.
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- In some areas, every housewife in an entire village would
be busy sewing Christmas stockings from January to September, the peak
season, while the men continued to work in the fields.
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- The modern-day Santa's helpers have no idea what Christmas
is about, but their lives depend on it.
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- "They rely on Christmas to survive," Cai said.
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- Cai says her company pays its workers an average of 800
yuan (96 US dollars) a month because it requires skilled labor, but admits
many firms pay as little as 400 yuan (48 dollars) for as much as 12 hours
of work a day.
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- "The local governments can't do anything about it
because they want people to set up factories and invest in their cities,
but if they enforce the labor laws, the investors will leave," Cai
said.
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- Hong Kong and Taiwan factory owners have the worst reputations,
but in recent years big buyers such as Walmart have sent representatives
to check for child labor, inadequate fire prevention systems and other
poor work conditions.
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- But salaries are something that have proven difficult
to check, with some companies reported to have falsified payrolls and time
cards.
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- However, part of the success of the industry in China
is due to the growing entrepreneurial spirit of its companies. Cai's enterprise,
for example, designs 70 percent of its products.
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- "Our products, in foreigners' eyes, are getting
better and better. We used to make items with a wholesale price of no more
than 30 to 40 US cents to make. Now we make things costing at least two
dollars," said Cai. "Sears, K-Mart and Walmart order our products.
We even sell to Macy's."
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- Her company sends staff to international trade shows
and shopping malls in foreign countries to check out the latest styles
and gauge the tastes of consumers.
- "Every year we change our styles. No longer do we
stick to the traditional colors of red and green. We introduce more fashionable
colors like purple and peacock blue and we're using a variety of products
including satin and velveteen," Cai said.
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- Toys make up a big part of the picture.
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- China has one-tenth of the world's toy market, selling
5 billion US dollars worth of toys in a world total of 50 billion, according
to Ma Yin, a spokesman at the China Toy Association.
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- Eighty percent of the toys made in China are exported,
he said.
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- Most Chinese toymakers now make Christmas presents for
overseas customers, the state-run China Daily cited the State Textile Industry
as saying this week.
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- One out of every six toys in the United States is made
in China, according to the China Daily report.
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- But it may take years before China becomes a big market
for the massive amounts of Christmas items it makes.
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- While they are growing fond of the holiday, Chinese people's
spending power remains limited.
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- "Many people are laid off and they're worried about
all the health reform and housing reform. White collar workers can't afford
to buy a gift for their child," Ma said.
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- In a Carrefour supermarket in Beijing, shoppers were
seen buying one or two small ornaments along with their normal shopping.
Only the occasional shopper is seen with a cartful of Christmas items and
then he is usually planning a company Christmas party.
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- "Most families still cannot afford to celebrate
Christmas," Ma said. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
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