The city of Christmas, or what is really behind the production of Chinese New Year toys

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Artificial Christmas trees, bright New Year's toys, shiny "rains" and many, many different things for Catholic Christmas and Orthodox New Year are created annually in tons in Chinese factories. However, about the conditions under which all the work on the creation of these New Year's decorations takes place. Some workers are 15 years old, and their work costs a penny, and for them New Year's holidays are not holidays at all, but hard, exhausting work.

Welcome to the City of Christmas in China's Zhejiang province, where 60 percent of the world's New Year decorations are produced. They make everything from plastic Christmas trees to Santa's hats, from Happy New Year magnets to full-length artificial reindeer.

Yiwu, a city with 600 factories for the production of New Year's toys and decorations, is located 320 km from Shanghai. Most of the products are sold to Europe and America. A huge retail market for New Year's goods has grown next to the factories - now this market covers about three and a half square kilometers and is the largest in the world. On the territory of this market there are more than 3,000 kiosks, which sell everything that can be connected in one way or another with the New Year, and it is sold at a very low price.

This price is achieved primarily due to low wages for workers. Many of the factory workers leave their families in the villages and literally live at work. Many of them rent small rooms with other workers and, at best, have 2 weeks of vacation a year. Most of the workers work in the factory from 7 am to 9 pm, and their salary depends on the amount of work performed.

Zhao Yimin, 15, who wears a sweater with an embroidered rabbit on her chest, stringing New Year's rain and gathering it in bunches of 12. Zhao does not receive a salary in her hands, at this age she is not yet due to her, so the money earned by the girl is automatically added to the salary of her mother, who also works in this factory. They moved together from Yunnan province, which is famous for its high unemployment rate. While working, Zhao makes time for school textbooks. “We came here because you can get a better job here,” the girl says. “But I'm not going to work here my whole life.”

Another girl, 18-year-old Yang Gui Hua, also works 14 hours a day. She works with artificial Christmas trees. “This is a difficult job, but when I learn to do it faster, then I will earn more,” the girl is sure.

As you might guess, the owners of factories are multimillionaires, because, despite the cheapness of the product, it still pays off and is sold in incredibly large quantities. One such owner is Reng Guan, known as the "King of the Christmas Trees". Rung is the founder and CEO of a factory that produces one million trees for export every year. His factory has been on the very edge of the city for 10 years and now employs over 300 workers, most of whom are migrants from other provinces in China. A wide variety of Christmas trees are created here, from "just like natural" to artificial trees made of shiny tinsel in a variety of colors.

"The British love a shiny herringbone," Reng says as he strolls through his factory's showroom. Americans love trees that look as natural as possible. Fir trees are harvested from April to September. This work is noisy, energy-consuming; workers sleep four in one room and work 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. "Next year we will move to a new location. This factory will be twice the size of the current one and the working conditions there will be better," Reng says. "They will have a TV, the Internet. We want our workers to be happy and not leave their jobs.."

Wang Chao, the woman behind Santa's hats and Christmas gift socks, has been in the Christmas goods industry for 20 years. “My family has always been associated with the production of clothes, but in the 1990s I saw that the real opportunities were hidden in New Year's goods. Then I did not even understand what kind of holiday it was, but I saw how huge this market is. now we are ahead of the rest. The competition is great. " When Wang is asked if she celebrates Christmas or New Years herself, she laughs. "No, I celebrate Chinese holidays. For us, Christmas and New Year is just business."

China is huge and has changed dramatically over the past few decades. To clearly understand what exactly has changed in the Middle Kingdom, you should look at our selection of photos from China " Then and now."