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World celebrates 'made-in-China' Christmas
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-21 11:08
Father Christmas's grotto is not an icy cave in Lapland but the economic
heart of southern China, where almost two-thirds of the world's Christmas trees
and decorations are made.
In factories staffed by predominantly Buddhist workers who have scarcely any
idea of the meaning of Christmas, the baubles, Santas, lights and tinsel that
mark the West's biggest festival are churned out at a relentless pace.
A Shenzhen
Christmas worker. Father Christmas's grotto is not an icy cave in Lapland
but the economic heart of southern China, where almost two-thirds of the
world's Christmas trees and decorations are
made.[AFP] | "No one would dispute it if you said
China is the biggest manufacturer of Christmas products. Even its Customs
department has figures just for exports of these goods," said Paul French,
publishing and marketing director of Access Asia, a market research company with
a special focus on China.
According to Customs figures, China exported 1.6 billion US dollars worth of
Christmas products in 2003, of which more than half went to the United States --
including seven artificial trees erected in the White House.
China's export of Christmas-related goods in the first nine months of 2004
amounted to 850 million US dollars.
More than half of that -- 510 million dollars worth -- came from South
China's Guangdong province, the country's major exporter and the heartland of
its manufacturing boom.
In the United States alone, unless your family purchased a natural tree, you
would have had a 70 percent chance of celebrating your Christmas with an
artificial tree manufactured in the city of Shenzhen in Guangdong.
Shenzhen SG Handicraft Co. is one of more than 300 enterprises that produces
Christmas items.
Chairman William Cheng said 80 percent of the company's sales came from
Christmas trees. His company makes 400,000 artificial trees a year that are
exported to major supermarkets and department stores in the United States and
the United Kingdom.
"We are full of factories of this kind in Shenzhen," said Cheng from his
factory, now in a lull after the pre-Christmas rush.
"There is so much competition out there. A lot of our customers want high
quality, new products. To attract more foreign investors, we make more
fibre-optic trees, trees with flashing stars, candles and so on. Our novelty
trees are also quite popular."
Cheng's factory, an hour from Shenzhen city, is clean and brightly lit if a
little unkempt.
At long workbenches, a few late-season workers tool the last of this year's
orders.
Rolls of green plastic that are used to make the tree's needles are wrapped
around wires to make the branches.
Some put little red Santa suits on plastic snowmen and others carefully glue
angels on ceramic gingerbread houses.
In mid-December, there are only a handful of workers but they are already
making samples of Christmas decorations for next year.
Cheng said production usually started in February each year, shortly after
the Lunar New Year, and the goods were ready for October delivery.
During the height of the production period, Cheng would have 600 workers
producing different types of Christmas ornaments.
Starting his own business only three years ago, Cheng said one of the most
difficult things about making Christmas decorations in a non-Christian country
is to understand Western culture and meet its requirements.
"They have different perceptions of colours. They like white trees, which is
supposed to be a funeral colour here and doesn't seem appropriate in this happy
season," he said.
Despite the hi-tech fibre-optic trees his company makes, Cheng said the
old-fashioned, green-needle ones are still the most popular.
Cheng's turnover this year has doubled to six million US dollars, but he says
rising prices for plastic, the raw material of Christmas, along with increasing
salaries, are cutting into profits.
"I should start thinking about developing products for other Western
festivals, like the Valentine's Day or Halloween."
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