A wonderfully funny and insightful look at the new China, the factory of the world - tracing an ordinary pair of underpants from their purchase in New Zealand back to where they were made.
When Joe Bennett bought a five-pack of 'Made in China' underpants in his local New Zealand hypermarket for $8.59, he wondered who on earth could be making any money, let alone profit, from the exchange. How many processes and middlemen are involved? Where and how are the pants made? And who decides on the absorbent qualities of the gusset?
Where Underpants Come From tells you all you need to know -In fact, probably more -about this mystery of global commerce. Leaving his supermarket trolley behind Joe embarks on an odyssey to the new factory of the world, China, to trace his pants back to their source. Along the way he discovers the extraordinarily balanced and intricate web of contacts and exchanges that makes global trade possible -and rapidly elevating China to the status of world economic superpower. He also grapples with chopsticks, challenges his own prejudices and marvels at the contrasts in one of the world's oldest, but fastest changing, societies.
About The Author
Joe Bennett was born in Brighton and since leaving Cambridge University has taught English in a variety of countries including Canada, Spain and New Zealand. He lives in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Industry Reviews
A simplistic, often smarmy look at the new Chinese economy by New Zealand travel writer Bennett (Mustn't Grumble: An Accidental Return to England, 2007, etc.).The author's idea to trace the step-by-step fabrication of the "Made in China" underpants he bought in his home country proves entertaining though shallow, and he offers few new insights into the Chinese economy or psyche. Bennett posits himself as a kind of Western Everyman who knows very little about China and nothing about the provenance of the array of commodities produced in its hundreds of sprawling factories. He admits that he read one book on China when he arrived in Shanghai to meet the underwear manufacturers. Passing himself off as a buyer, he visited an underwear factory on the outskirts of the city, observing the legions of young girls from the provinces toiling at their workstations. The author investigates The Warehouse Limited, the big-box New Zealand retailer with factories in Shanghai that made Bennett's underpants inexpensively and well, thanks to abundant labor, increasing quality control and "reverse engineering" (learning how to make Western products cheaper). Bennett visited the Shanghai port where the huge container ships came through and a factory in Quanzhou. To experience rural China ("I'd like to slap the rump of a water buffalo"), he stopped briefly in Wenzhou and other comparatively small cities. Then he moved on to Thailand, where the rubber for the waistbands originated. In Urumqi, located in the western province of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, he felt the cotton. His observations about getting around, eating unusual food and meeting the curious Chinese people are mostly generous. With a smattering of textbook history, he offers a dummy's tour of China.Some guffawing moments interspersed with somber reflections on economic growth, pollution and racism. (Kirkus Reviews)
