Publishers Weekly
★ 10/26/2020
Journalist Pang debuts with a vivid and powerful report on Chinese forced labor camps and their connections to the American marketplace. She spotlights the story of political prisoner Sun Yi, a follower of the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong, who inserted handwritten notes into the boxes of Halloween decorations he packaged at a camp in northeastern China. In 2012, two years after Sun’s release, an Oregon woman found one of his notes in a box of foam gravestones. The resulting media coverage led to widespread condemnation of China’s labor practices, Pang writes, but only superficial changes. Her cinematic narrative alternates between Sun’s traumatic experiences and an overview of the political history, cultural prejudices, and economic factors behind China’s system of “reeducation through labor.” She also explores loopholes in U.S. laws that might otherwise prevent imports from the camps, and how American consumers searching for cheap products and the latest trends create an incentive for China to continue its brutal labor practices. Noting that China responds to “financial pushback,” she urges consumers to hold their favorite brands to account for the conditions under which their goods are produced. Engrossing and deeply reported, this impressive exposé will make readers think twice about their next purchase. (Feb.)
From the Publisher
A moving and powerful look at the brutal slave labor camps in China that mass produce our consumer products. Amelia Pang, who puts a human face on the Chinese laborers who work in bondage, makes clear our complicity in this inhuman system. She forces us, like the abolitionists who battled slavery in the 19th century, to place the sanctity of human life before the maximization of profit. It is hard not to finish this book and not be outraged, not only at the Chinese government but the American corporations that knowingly collaborate with and profit from this modern slave trade.” —Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author“Amelia Pang has written a powerful new book that traces what we buy back to those who made it, often under truly torturous conditions.” —Scott Simon, host of NPR / Weekend Edition Saturday“Amelia Pang exposes the shadow economy of forced labor in Made in China. Pang adroitly situates readers to Chinese culture and society… [and] sounds an uplifting note of agency and empowerment about the prospective impact of reforming Western consumption.” —San Francisco Chronicle“Timely and urgent… Pang is a dogged investigator.” —The New York Times Book Review “The result of Pang's investigation is this powerful, illuminating book, which serves as a reminder that not only is nothing in life actually free, but it should also never be inexplicably cheap—someone, somewhere, is always paying the price.” —Refinery29“Journalist Pang debuts with a vivid and powerful report on Chinese forced labor camps and their connections to the American marketplace. Cinematic . . . Engrossing and deeply reported, this impressive exposé will make readers think twice about their next purchase.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “An urgent, shocking and enraging account of the forced labor in China behind the cheap goods we purchase here in the U.S.” —Ms. Magazine“With clarity and sensitivity, [Pang] exposes the human cost of the global demand for cut-rate products, and provides clear calls to action for individuals, corporations and governments to stem these abuses. Any reader with half a heart will be hard-pressed not to re-examine their own buying habits after reading this incredible, moving account.” —Shelf Awareness “A powerful call to action and advice for conscientious consumption . . . Spanning biography, business, and sociology, this well-reported and well-researched account of labor practices shows the impact of the demand for global goods.” —Library Journal “A powerful argument for heightened awareness of the high price of Chinese-made products.” —Kirkus Reviews “Readers will be drawn into this thoroughly researched narrative and will be awakened by the author’s pleas for consumers to be more vigilant about the origin of their goods.”—Booklist “The book is an excellent entry-level explanation of Chinese religious and political history, and how human rights abuses intersect with billion-dollar businesses. Pang connects the dots between globalization, Western consumption, and sustainability to create a clear, cohesive picture of the problem, as well as of potential solutions.” —BookPage “A cinematic approach to a vital topic, which should be as close to our hearts as cheap goods are to our wallets. Amelia Pang provides close-ups of the individual stories behind labor camps, and wide-angle views of their context and history.” —Alec Ash, author of Wish Lanterns: Young Lives in New China
"Sun's story shows the inhuman nature of the authoritarian Chinese government. The narrative consists of many people’s untold stories. After reading this book, anyone with a conscience will realize it is time to take action for those who are persecuted by the Chinese dictatorship.” —Chen Guangcheng, author of The Barefoot Lawyer: A Blind Man's Fight for Justice and Freedom in China “The problem of illegal prison labor being used in the People’s Republic of China to manufacture goods for global markets is a longstanding one that keeps resurfacing in new guises. Now with this well-researched and reported book that reads like a detective story, investigative journalist Amelia Pang has opened a new porthole on this pernicious practice.”—Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society
Library Journal
03/19/2021
In this debut, journalist Pang sheds light on conditions in forced-labor camps where goods are manufactured to be sold worldwide. Pang describes an unlikely encounter between Sun Yi, a prisoner in a Chinese labor camp who tucked a message in a box of Halloween decorations he was packing, and Julie Keith, the American consumer who found the note. As Keith worked stateside to expose exploitative labor practices, she learned more about the conditions that exist in China and worldwide that enable these labor practices to continue. Pang writes that many large American corporations and distributors, having received criticism, have claimed to have cut ties with factories that use forced labor; however, she writes, poor record-keeping, bad audit practices, throttled internet, and other conditions have enabled forced labor to continue. The book ends with a powerful call to action and advice for conscientious consumption. Sun Yi and Keith's story was previously featured in the 2018 documentary Letter from Masanjia. Pang's book contains a bibliography of sources for further reading on the topic. VERDICT Spanning biography, business, and sociology, this well-reported and well-researched account of labor practices shows the impact of the demand for global goods. It will especially interest consumers and labor advocates.—Jennifer Clifton, Indiana State Lib., Indianapolis
Kirkus Reviews
2020-11-18
If a product is made in China, this book reveals, it’s likely made by prisoners.
Pang’s story beings with an Oregon woman who, while opening a package of foam headstones for Halloween decorations, discovered a note written on onionskin paper describing the plight of prisoners in a labor camp in China: “People who work here, have to work 15 hours a day with out [sic] Saturday, Sunday break and any holidays, otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark, nearly no payment.” The note also pointed out that many of the prisoners were members of Falun Gong, a group that added a religious—and then dissident—element to the traditional practice of qi gong. From that starting point, Pang describes not just the fate of the writer of that note—one of many that consumers in the West discovered in packages containing Chinese-made goods—but also the astonishingly comprehensive and oppressive Chinese penal system. Of that writer, blameless apart from his criticism of the government, Pang observes, “I felt that [his] fight for freedom and his subsequent imprisonment was emblematic of a much broader human rights issue, which extends beyond Falun Gong.” Indeed, the “laogai system” is the world’s “largest forced-labor system,” embracing labor camps, outright prisons, and even drug rehab centers; those who are sentenced to “reeducation through labor” have no recourse to courts but are sentenced at the whim of public security officials. The system is now being extended to include millions of people whose only crime is to have been born into the minority Uighur population. Pang notes that the laogai system produces goods that are staples of such vendors as Walmart and Amazon, only some of which monitor their suppliers for human rights violations. She suggests a system to certify that goods are laogai free: “Until there is such a label, perhaps we can reduce unnecessary consumption”—good advice in and of itself.
A powerful argument for heightened awareness of the high price of Chinese-made products.
