There's a Cute Little White Boy in the Store

We just got back from the Great Wall of China. That's not something you can say every day. It's hard to believe that it's true; it's still hard to believe we're really here in China, because it all seems so surreal.

But the fact that we are in China is unavoidable. Chinese writing and spoken language surrounds us everywhere, of course. Moreover, unlike traveling to most places in "the West," we are unmistakably foreign and, outside this hotel, even at large tourist destinations, part of a slim minority in the crowd.

As to our adventures today, our Bethany (adoption agency) travel group of five families got on the bus this morning to head to the Great Wall. On the way, we stopped to visit a cloisonné factory. (What's cloisonné? Click here or here.) It was very interesting and a little bit sad. A friendly guide who spoke English very well showed us to several different workshop areas demonstrating the different steps in creating the cloisonné pieces.

The process is done largely by hand and with painstaking detail. I believe the guide said it takes 20 days of labor done by 7 different craftspeople or laborers to make, for example, a medium sized vase.

Making Cloisonné / Working Conditions
The working conditions disturbed us. The areas they showed us were very dingy, spartan rooms with concrete walls and floors and old tables and chairs. Women worked for unknown hours on end gluing the tiny strips of copper to the sides of the pieces to form the design. Others applied various colored enamel mineral pastes with eye droppers to the spaces formed by the designs. Men without breathing masks sat at machines that could spin the vases (etc.) around very quickly, smoothing these fired pieces with handheld polishing stones.

The workers who could look up from their work or who interacted with the tour guide, were pleasant and did not appear as if they found the work oppressive. If these dreary, seemingly unsafe spaces were the ones they showed to tourists, I had to wonder under what conditions might the unseen dozens be working under.

Rebecca wondered how many of the women working there might be birthmothers to orphaned or adopted children.

One can complain a little about some of the seemingly overly detailed, intrusive OSHA rules bearing on U.S. business. But after seeing just a sample of the conditions in Chinese manufacturing plants, as Rebecca reminded me, we are very fortunate that past generations risked their livelihoods and sometimes their lives to help secure us the labor regulations that we have today in the U.S. and many other countries.

Exit Through the Gift Shop
The conditions of the cloisonné workshops were soon set in stark contrast with the large, lovely store in which we were, of course, given time to shop among the factory's finished wares. The carefully-lit glass shelves and cases bore thousands of pieces of cloisonné, from little 750-yuan ($10) figures to floor display urns on sale for thousands of dollars. The store was staffed by well-groomed, friendly, young people, most of whom were versed in at least a little English. Their sales techniques consisted mainly of walking up to customers and beginning a "casual" conversion about the quality or beauty of the items, or whether one liked this or that piece.

Movie Star Status
We looked at the work, much of it very beautiful and chatted a little with the clerks. Benjamin's celebrity for the day began here. Waiguoren (foreigners) are commonplace at the cloisonné factory as it is obviously on the itinerary of many a travel group headed for the Great Wall. Western children, however, are more rare — especially a fair-haired, fair-skinned, green-eyed "spectacle" like Benjamin. Some steal glances, others stare and comment to one another quite openly. Women often giggle and fawn. If Benjamin says "ni hao" (hello), xie xie (thank you), or "zai jian" (goodbye), many are so surprised or tickled that they just light up. Rebecca heard one young women tell her coworkers excitedly how she waved to Benjamin and he said "ni hao" and "zai jian," even though they were standing right next and saw the same thing — as if they wouldn't believe their own eyes unless she told the tale aloud. A few people, on hearing one of us attempt a sentence in Mandarin, commented directly to us that Benjamin was "hen piao liang" (very good-looking).

Rebecca or I frequently say to people around us "ni hao," especially if they are staring at Benjamin or us. We also repeatedly say "xie xie" (thanks) to those who help us in the least. For me it’s the nerves of being out in a strange place combined with Midwestern courtesy and guilt. Many nod or politely respond with the typical response "bu ke qi" (you're welcome or, literally, no [need to be] polite). For others that small token of Chinese (from us adults) alone is enough to provoke a surprised smile or comment.

One young sales lady in the cloisonné shop was so surprised that we could speak a few sentences of Mandarin (and that Benjamin knew a few phrases, too), she asked if we had recently settled in China.

We did break down and buy a few small items and then met with the group outside. It was a beautiful sunny day with a high of 58 degrees F, and we were soon off for the Great Wall.