Father Christmas's grotto is not an icy cave in Lapland but the economic heart of southern China, where almost two-thirds of the world's Christmas trees and decorations are made.
In factories staffed by predominantly Buddhist workers who have scarcely any idea of the meaning of Christmas, the baubles, Santas, lights and tinsel that mark the West's biggest festival are churned out at a relentless pace.
PHOTO: AFP
"No one would dispute it if you said China is the biggest manufacturer of Christmas products. Even its customs department has figures just for exports of these goods," said Paul French, publishing and marketing director of Access Asia, a market research company with a special focus on China.
According to Customs figures, China exported US$1.6 billion worth of Christmas products last year, of which more than half went to the US, including seven artificial trees erected in the White House.
China's export of Christmas-related goods in the first nine months of this year amounted to US$850 million.
More than half of that -- US$510 million worth -- came from Guangdong Province.
In the US alone, unless your family purchased a natural tree, you would have had a 70 percent chance of celebrating your Christmas with an artificial tree manu-factured in Guangdong's Shenzhen City.
Shenzhen SG Handicraft Co is one of more than 300 enterprises that produces Christmas items.
Chairman William Cheng said 80 percent of the company's sales came from Christmas trees. His company makes 400,000 artificial trees a year that are exported to major supermarkets and department stores in the US and the UK.
"We are full of factories of this kind in Shenzhen," said Cheng from his factory, now in a lull after the pre-Christmas rush.
"There is so much competition out there. A lot of our customers want high quality, new products. To attract more foreign investors, we make more fibre-optic trees, trees with flashing stars, candles and so on. Our novelty trees are also quite popular."
Cheng's factory, an hour from Shenzhen City, is clean and brightly lit if a little unkempt.
At long workbenches, a few late-season workers tool the last of this year's orders.
Cheng said production usually started in February each year, after the Lunar New Year, with goods ready for delivery in October.
During the height of the production period, Cheng would have 600 workers producing different types of Christmas ornaments.
Starting his own business only three years ago, Cheng said one of the most difficult things about making Christmas decorations in a non-Christian country is to understand Western culture and meet its requirements.
"They have different perceptions of colors. They like white trees, which is supposed to be a funeral color here and doesn't seem appropriate in this happy season," he said.
Cheng's turnover this year has doubled to US$6 million, but he says rising prices for plastic, the raw material of Christmas, along with increasing salaries, are cutting into profits.
"I should start thinking about developing products for other Western festivals, like the Valentine's Day or Halloween," he said.
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS