Driving through China

Any of us who have entered China to visit a factory know the amusement park quality of the experience. It’s like one of those 360 degree Disney rides where the danger feels real but isn’t…except in this case it is. 

That’s why I was drawn to a book review in The New York Times on Peter Hessler’s new book, “Country Driving, A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory.” Here is how Hessler puts it:

It’s hard to imagine another place where people take such joy in driving so badly…Beijingers drive the way they used to walk — in packs and without signaling. “They don’t mind if you tailgate, or pass on the right or drive on the sidewalk. You can back down a highway entrance ramp without anybody batting an eyelash. . . . People pass on hills; they pass on turns; they pass in tunnels.” In other words, driving requires improvisation and creative flouting of the law — which is also a pretty apt description of the average citizen’s technique for maneuvering through the warp-speed transitions of Chinese society.

More than 85% of the world’s toys are being made in this country so, we in the toy and play industries are as much or more influenced by what goes on in China as what occurs in our home countries.   This book gives us a picture of what it must be like for those nameless people we see on the assembly lines making products for us all to consume.   It may also be a metaphor for a country that is speeding like crazy to an uncertain future while we all sit in the back seat and pray.  What a ride!