“I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back”
- Leo Tolstoy
Think of it in the context of say, Live 8. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
As I’m sure is experienced by anyone when they exit, even briefly, the bubble of comfort that surrounds us everywhere we go, my first time in China had a few of those bleak “oh shit,” moments. These are the times when you see and can almost comprehend, for the first time, the worst things you have feared about the world, but never really wanted to admit. And this, with the full knowledge that the company I worked at undoubtedly had more modern, better equipped facilities than the majority of industrial communities in (rural) China.
It really hit me when I saw the dramatic disconnect between the work I do as a designer and the work that the labourers in the factory do. This is, of course, astoundingly obvious. I’ve always known that the job I do as a designer (or that those in the offices in China do) is significantly different than those who actually make the product - I’m not that naive. That said, it never truly occurred to me that seemingly insignificant choices like changing the type of resin wicker we used to our new patented ™ natural-feel PE wicker would end up hurting the hands of the weavers on the line producing the furniture.
Before hearing that, I’d acknowledged, and probably even internalized to some degree that the conditions I was seeing weren’t always the greatest. Deafening factory floors with zero ear protection. Cleaning aluminium tubes in vats of industrial chemicals without even the most basic of respirators. Powder-coating entire lines of furniture while wearing rudimentary dust masks only. It was heartbreaking, but to think that even something so minor as the wicker texture I’d chosen would have ramifications was the real eye-opener.
It’s depressing, but I feel it’s desperately important for designers to experience this kind of thing. Design can’t change the world by itself, and realizing that is hugely important in evaluating the kind of solutions we can bring to the table. To take an example from Africa, when the choice is between a few cords of wood to boil your water, or a $14.50 LifeStraw that isn’t even as effective, the choice for the less sexy, undesigned choice becomes obvious. Recognize it!
Scenic photography can get boring, since it’s so difficult to capture the impact of what you’re actually seeing. Comprehending China is all about comprehending the scale of everything, so I took a few panoramic shots while I was there. More shots after the jump, and I’ll upload some normal snaps a bit later.
