China’s Toymakers: No Joy This Holiday

Claims of lead-based paint and a disaster in world-wide economic conditions has slammed Santa’s Toyland: China.

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In Dongguan, where many of Santa’s gifts are really made, nearly half of the 3,800 toy factories have closed or plan to. That’s left a vast number of workers, mostly migrants, without jobs.

By Barbara Demick
The Los Angeles Times
December 25, 2008

Reporting from Dongguan, China — Growing up in the Chinese countryside with only an elementary school education, Yang Yanjun had never heard of Christmas until she landed a job painting pink-cheeked cherubs to decorate trees.

But Christmas proved to be a miraculous holiday that would utterly transform her life. Over a decade, she worked in factories producing ornaments and toys that foreign children were told came from Santa’s workshops. She earned up to $200 a month, unimaginable riches that allowed her to build a house for her family back home.

 
Jobless Chinese toymakers turned vendors.  Photo by  Barbara Demick, The Los Angeles Times
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Related:
China Faces Social Unrest As Up To 150 Million Migrants Go Home Without Work

China’s Slowing Growth, Unemployment Leads Toward Social Unrest

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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/
world/la-fg-china-toys25-2008dec25,0,4105911.story