Block Two, Made in China, considers China’s role as a manufacturer of much of the West’s consumer goods, from furniture to mobile phones, and from aluminium tubing to textiles.
The economic implications of China’s rise are analysed, as are the social implications – the effect that cheap imports from China have on jobs in the west, and the effect that industrialisation is having on the Chinese and their environment. The block includes an introduction to business practices in China, after which we turn to look at life in modern China.
This, as you will see, involves enormous contrasts between the rich and poor, and those in between. Chinese youths living in major cities lead lives very different from their parents or grandparents, and the tensions this creates, as well as the enormous potential, will be touched upon.
