the metafictional blues

Over the weekend I went to the Holiday Shoppe/Craft Fair at my daughter’s school. I’m not sure if you remember these set ups, but it’s generally where they lay out dozens of low-cost “gift” items that kids can buy for a few dollars to surprise Mom or Grandpa on Christmas. It’s a nice idea and usually it can be made into a “learning opportunity” whereby you teach your little precious how to budget and spend wisely. Unfortunately many of the items are of less than stellar quality and you’d probably be just as successful passing a sawbuck to your budding consumer and letting him/her loose in the local dollar store. But I digress. Most of the time these “Holiday Shoppes” are held during school hours so the kids can bring their money in and buy gifts without ruining the surprise for mom or dad. Unless you’re like my daughter who in the 3rd grade decided she wanted a neon tie-dyed teddy bear more than she wanted to spring for the “World’s Best Grandma” coffee mug. Of course I was hoping to pick up a few items at the craft fair portion of the event, but alas, there was not much to be had there. So we did what any mother-daughter shopping duo would do — we headed to Target.

Now I have never claimed to be the world’s most conscientious consumer, but I’ve been trying lately to be a bit more focused on environmentally-friendly and socially-conscious choices. Also the recent rash of recalls in the toy sector have made me re-think my Christmas shopping for the kids on my list.  After reading this article about one mom’s quest to live “China-free” I started to think about it all a little more personally and realized just how difficult it really is to avoid the “Made in China” label. So I challenged myself to find products in my beloved Target that were not, in fact, hecho en China. This was probably not the best idea I had for a fun Saturday afternoon outing, but I enlisted the help of my 10-year old daughter, telling her the concerns I had about buying Chinese-manufactured goods, citing safety concerns, quality of the materials and the socio-economic implications of buying goods that would perpetuate an oppressive and downright frightening situation backed by the Chinese government. I felt pretty good about our mission, until each time we turned a product over, we realized China was there to greet us at every turn. We ended up opting for a t-shirt made in Bangladesh over the Chinese option — but even then I had to wonder if that was equally bad (my fiance assured me later that items from Bangladesh, Taiwan and the Philippines were much better in terms of social awareness). I coaxed my daughter to trade in her “Sugar Cookie” scented lotion for some “Ultra Moisturizing Jergens” with no discernable scent as the former was, yes, made in China. Now I don’t know about you, but if you can accidentally ingest some Aqua Dots that will metabolize into the “date rape drug” — I’m not sure if I’d want to be rubbing Chinese-produced lotion right into my skin. Perhaps I’m overreacting, but the more I thought about it, the more frantic I was to find every item on my list from somewhere other than China.  Hello Kitty, a distinctly Japanese creation, enticed my daughter to pick up a sequined Hello Kitty coin purse that she wanted to buy with her own money. As Japanese as Hello Kitty may be in origin, her coin purse incarnation was Chinese-made! I slyly encouraged my daughter to pass on this purchase by convincing her we could make our own sequined Hello Kitty coin purse at home. How, I don’t know, but I’m sure we could. However, this didn’t stop her from steadfastly defending her right to purchase a set of Hello Kitty fake fingernails. Made in China. “Fine, you can make your own choices” I said, “but I’m just going to tell you up front that those press on nails never stick.” No dice, she wasn’t giving them up.

By the time we got to the holiday decoration aisle my daughter had pretty much had enough of this, informing me that “It’s not like everything we get can’t be made in China, mom.” With the inflection on “mom” as to note “you cannot be serious, woman!” I did finally find some holiday lights that weren’t made in China but they also weren’t the LED energy saving type … so does that offset my choice? This was clearly starting to take over my life and I had only set out on this goal a half-hour earlier. As we meticulously checked items as they went into the cart, I had this odd sense of satisfaction and hopelessness combined. Even after we got home, I would casually check out items we already had to verify that they were, after all, made in China. And even one of the items we made it home with (not the fake fingernails) made it past my surveillance. A Rubbermaid food container. Which goes to show even a trusted brand from an American company doesn’t guarantee it’s not made elsewhere. (MPR’s Bob Collins so eloquently framed this dilemma in his “What’s China Got?” piece today. And if that gas siphoning photo doesn’t just make you raise an eyebrow, I don’t know what will.)  So what’s the point of all this? I don’t know. Products coming into the US are still under regulation and inspection, but if their manufacture and components are under the control of other jurisdictions up until that point, it’s hard to feel 100% confident. Sure, there are domestically produced items that are just as fallible, but there is something about the pervasiveness of “Hecho en China” that makes you wonder, even if just a little bit.

Unless you’re staring down some pink glittery Hello Kitty emblazoned press-on fingernails. Then … just forget it.