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A Year Without "Made in China": One Family (Hardcover)
by Sara Bongiorni
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Author: Sara Bongiorni
Publisher: Wiley
Pub. in: June, 2007
ISBN: 0470116137
Pages: 256
Measurements: 9.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA01125
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0470116135
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- MSL Picks -
1. This is a GREAT summer read: but NOT JUST a summer read. Don't worry that your 12 hours at the office have burned your synapses down to a stub and you will vanish if you pick up a book - this kind of reading is like getting a massage and then sitting with a margarita while the ocean laps at your feet (OK maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but only just a bit).
2. This book has changed the way I think about things -
Personally I was not that interested in facing any number of daunting subjects, like our failing foreign policy, our part in wrecking the earth, or - our growing dependence on China's capacity to put an endless supply of humans to the task of manufacturing cheap goods for our self-indulgent pleasure. I think about these things sometimes but then quickly put them away in the box my brain reserves for things I wish I could do something about but that seem overwhelming for me as an individual citizen. I admit this because I am pretty sure I am not alone and I think that is why this book, in its very unassuming way, is going to be remembered someday as having been "very important". It puts a (humorous and pleasant) finger on something we all think and worry about but have not had a collective way of sharing.
3. I loved it because the author taught me something without giving me the impression that that was her intention. Like all good lessons she puts the facts on the table and lets me come to a conclusion all by myself, not like getting an overly-rounded spoon full of undercooked frozen vegetables pushed down my throat ;-)
4. She has a true knack for spinning a seemingly simple story. I say "seemingly" because you come away from this book with the growing suspicion that things are more complicated than they seem. I am keeping my eyes peeled for her next book (whatever that may be). Maybe she can take on some of America's other big subjects - Ms Bongiorni for President!
(From quoting C.J. Smet, USA)
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Sara Bongiorni is an experienced journalist who has worked at daily newspapers and regional business publications in California and Louisiana for the past decade. Her "beat" included international trade and its impact on local economies. Bongiorni has won local, state, and national awards for her articles, including a 2002 Best in Business award from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers for her part in a series on the impact of out-migration on the Louisiana economy. Bongiorni graduated from the University of California, San Diego, and holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of Indiana at Bloomington.
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From Publisher
Includes a Foreword by Joel L. Naroff, PhD,
President, Naroff Economic Advisors, Inc.
Chief Economist, Commerce Bank
"Over the past century, Americans' images of China have fluctuated wildly from victim, to heroic fighter, to Communist fanatic. We have loved them and feared them. And now, as Sara Bongiorni shows in vivid personal terms, we are in a new phase where it is a little of both. China has become an economic giant that can step on our toes, but that we must embrace."
-John Maxwell Hamilton, Dean and Hopkins P. Breazeale Foundation Professor Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University
"When the writer resolves to forgo Chinese imports for one year, she leads her lively family in a fascinating experiment that requires surprising feats of will power and ingenuity. The family's adventure through the maze of modern America's consumer life is both thought provoking and delightful to read. Those little 'Made in China' labels will never seem the same again."
-Mark Fabiani, former White House special counsel and media/political consultant
"Breaking up is indeed hard to do, as Sara Bongiorni proves in this winning memoir of her household's one-year boycott of Chinese products. Equal parts Erma Bombeck and economics, A Year Without 'Made in China' is that lively miracle-a crash course in globalization that is also consummately entertaining."
-Danny Heitman, columnist for The Advocate (Baton Rouge)
"A funny and engaging story about one family's experiment in our global economy. The Bongiorni family does without sneakers, sunglasses, and printer cartridges, but develops a dogged creativity and much needed sense of humor. The myriad moral complexities in the relationship between American consumers and Chinese factory are evident in each shopping trip."
-Pietra Rivoli, PhD, Professor, McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University and author, The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy
"You will never go shopping the same way again! It's impossible to read Sara Bongiorni's book and not be captivated by the complexity and challenge of her task, and to then try it yourself for a day and fail miserably at it by lunchtime. This is the rare book that makes you think about how big global issues actually hit home, and it will have you discussing those issues with your friends."
-Chuck Jaffe, Senior Columnist, MarketWatch host, Your Money (www.yourmoneyradio.net)
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"The image of China as the beast of the Far East is well entrenched. But that doesn't necessarily mean the reality matches the popular perception. So, is China really the economic steamroller we think it is? Even more importantly, could we really live without Chinese goods? That is the question asked by Sara Bongiorni in her book, A Year Without 'Made in China.'"
From the Foreword by Joel L. Naroff, PhD
President, Naroff Economic Advisors, Inc.
Chief Economist, Commerce Bank
On January 1, 2005, Sara Bongiorni's family embarked on a yearlong boycott of Chinese products. They wanted to see for themselves what it would take, in will power and creativity, to live without the world's fastest growing economy - and whether it could be done at all.
A Year Without "Made in China" chronicles this fascinating and frustrating journey, and provides you with a thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining account of life in a vast and slippery global economy of infinite complexity. Drawing on her years as an award-winning journalist, Bongiorni fills this book with engaging stories and anecdotes of her family's attempt to outrun China's reach, and does a remarkable job of taking a decidedly big-picture issue - China's emerging status in the global economy - and breaking it down to a personal level.
Bongiorni's real-world adventure is filled with small human dramas. You'll learn how her boycott of China meant scrambling to keep her rebellious husband in line and disappointing her young son in stand-offs over Chinese-made toys. You'll also discover how shopping trips for mundane items like birthday candles as well as high-end designer clothing became grinding ordeals, while broken appliances brought on mini crises.
A Year Without "Made in China" reveals how this manufacturing colossus is quietly changing our lives, but it also addresses the realities of globalization and, more importantly, where the world economy is heading. With low wages and government subsidies fueling China's rapid production of consumer goods, countries and companies around the world will soon face the inconvenient fact that they must rely on this economic giant in order to survive - and this book offers a rare glimpse of what that could be like.
See for yourself how the most populous nation on Earth influences almost every aspect of our daily lives and why this situation is both limiting and expanding our options when it comes to the products a majority of us take for granted. |
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Publishers Weekly, USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
Journalist Bongiorni, on a post-Christmas day mired deep in plastic toys and electronics equipment, makes up her mind to live for a year without buying any products made in China, a decision spurred less by notions of idealism or fair trade-though she does note troubling statistics on job loss and trade deficits-than simply "to see if it can be done." In this more personal vein, Bongiorni tells often funny, occasionally humiliating stories centering around her difficulty procuring sneakers, sunglasses, DVD players and toys for two young children and a skeptical husband. With little insight into global economics or China's manufacturing practices, readers may question the point of singling out China when cheap, sweatshop-produced products from other countries are fair game (though Bongiorni cheerfully admits the flaws in her project, she doesn't consider fixing them). Still, Bongiorni is a graceful, self-deprecating writer, and her comic adventures in self-imposed inconvenience cast an interesting sideways glance at the personal effects of globalism, even if it doesn't easily connect to the bigger picture.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Bloomberg News, USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
A wry look at the ingenuity it takes to shun the planet's fastest-growing economy. |
The Telegraph, USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
The West's dependence on Chinese exports was neatly summed up. |
Financial Times, USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
What the year-long experiment did achieve, was to switch on Bongiorni as a consumer and make her alive to the complexities and shifting power of the international economy. |
View all 8 comments |
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