A Year Without "Made in China": One Family's True Life Adventure in the Global Economy

by Sara Bongiorni

Overview

A Year Without "Made in China" provides you with a thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining account of how the most populous nation on Earth influences almost every aspect of our daily lives. Drawing on her years as an award-winning journalist, author Sara Bongiorni fills this book with engaging stories and anecdotes of her family's attempt to outrun China's reach–by boycotting Chinese made products–and does a remarkable job of taking a decidedly big-picture issue and breaking it down to a personal level.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780470379202
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/06/2008
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

SARA BONGIORNI is a writer and journalist who has worked at news-papers and business publications in California and Louisiana. Her "beat" has 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 Indiana University.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Acknowledgments xiii

INTRODUCTION 1

CHAPTER ONE

Farewell, My Concubine 5

CHAPTER TWO

Red Shoes 31

CHAPTER THREE

Rise and China 47

CHAPTER FOUR

Manufacturing Dissent 63

CHAPTER FIVE

A Modest Proposal 79

CHAPTER SIX

Mothers of Invention 95

CHAPTER SEVEN

Summer of Discontent 111

CHAPTER EIGHT

Red Tide 127

CHAPTER NINE

China Dreams 141

CHAPTER TEN

Meltdown 155

CHAPTER ELEVEN

The China Season 175

CHAPTER TWELVE

Road’s End 191

Epilogue 219

About the Author 229

Index 231

Editorial Reviews

…more Erma Bombeck than Tom Friedman. Bongiorni struggles to explain why she imposed the private boycott on her family. She insists that it is not a political protest on behalf of U.S. workers and "nothing personal" against China. Her great-great-grandfather was Chinese, so she says she can't be guilty of anti-Chinese prejudice. In the end, Bongiorni wonderfully articulates the ambivalence that many Americans feel toward China's modernization: "When I see the words Made in China, part of me says, Good for China, while another part feels sentimental about something I've lost, but I'm not sure what exactly."
—The Washington Post

Susan L. Shirk