Made in China

It became an embarrassing obsession during my growing years. I would spend my leisure hours closely scrutinising the most uninteresting household object...

It became an embarrassing obsession during my growing years. I would spend my leisure hours closely scrutinising the most uninteresting household object to gauge where it came from. At parties, I would stealthily flip a CD player over to examine its underside for those tell-tale 8216;Made in8230;8217; words stamped shyly in the finest print.

My grandfather8217;s iron chest used to be creaked open for promising relics from a different era. Most items in them predated the Second World War; strangely enough, the world seems to have been a close-knit community even in those days. Unbeknownst to him, there were pens made in England and paintbrushes made in Germany. 8216;Made in Hong Kong8217; or 8216;Made in Japan8217; usually meant something exotic 8212; inevitably some Oriental nesting tables or porcelain dolls.

These days, department stores revel in products from countries exotic. Look at those curly labels and you see that your shirts and trousers are made in Pakistan, Sri Lanka or the Dominican Republic. 8216;Assembled in Canada8217; with 8216;Parts made in Mexico8217; 8212; the latter statement in finer print is intended as a devious distraction. 8216;Fabrique au Mexique8217; sounds chic. Taiwan or Malaysia seems to be the source of anything electronic, with an often 8216;Serviced in USA8217; stamped on more as an apology. I am given a feeling that Turkey seems to be the only country that knows how to design a bedsheet. Recalled toys aside, goods made in China still rule the proverbial roost. Unlike countries that excel at blankets or iPods, the soul of China thrives in almost everything from toothbrushes to Swiss army knives.

Recently I took a family vacation to the Alaskan wilderness. We rode a rickety airplane past misty mountains landing in a far-flung Native Alaskan village. At the end of the tour, we were herded to the mandatory souvenir shop when an 8216;ulu8217; 8212; an Eskimo knife 8212; caught my eye. As I held the object in admiration of a piece of work so well-crafted, my natural instincts got the better of me. I turned it around, ever so alert for its magical stamp of origin.

8216;Made in China8217;, the marking screamed out from the glint of metal!