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that book about china

National Review’s John Derbyshire published a book review titled “China Junk.” What I like most about his treatment of “Poorly Made in China” is how he managed to pull cultural strands from the book. Speaking of the book’s author, he writes and then quotes: 

Many of his vexations echo those voiced by foreigners in China for half a millennium or more: a love of excuse and pretense, the elevation of appearance over substance, admiration for unprincipled cleverness, shame a much stronger sanction than guilt. The old stereotype of the Chinese as chronic gamblers has some foundation in the Chinese psyche, too, as Midler notes:

“The impression I got at some of the factories that engaged in quality manipulation schemes is that they did so after growing bored with their more conventional successes. . . . There was a great deal of excitement that came with getting a new business off the ground. These manufacturers were thrilled when they signed up their first major customer, and they got another kick from orders that were especially large. When deal flow leveled out, factory owners looked for other ways in which they could capture that hint of thrill.”

National Review is a conservative publication, of course, but  that doesn’t necessarily mean that Derbyshire is biased. In his review, he called the book “instructive and entertaining,” and it’s the same assessment coming in from liberals!

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