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In 2015 air pollution levels in Beijing were so intense, China received its first ever red alert. The smoggy conditions made buildings with LED screens look like they had futuristic holograms.

As an artist, one thing that consistently bothers me is how creative skills are valued differently in wealthy countries than they are in developing countries.

I work at a craft store, and the number of ornaments and statues that say they were ‘hand painted’ or ‘handmade’ makes me dizzy. Someone had to assemble and/or paint these often intricate decorations only for some white woman to buy them half-off for like $3.

If you were to buy a hand-painted statue from an American creator on Etsy? It’s priced fairly for the time and materials that went into it, and the person that created it is getting at least 60-70% profit after material and site fees (please correct me if that estimate is inaccurate).

All of those cheap shirts and dresses from Shein are handmade, but it’s not valued nearly as much as the artists and creators they often steal from. This is obviously not the fault of either the independent artists or factory workers creating these, but the corporation that cheapens these creations from both a material and creative standpoint. Not only are you buying a piece of clothing made from as cheap of materials possible that is bad for the environment and incentivizing the mistreatment of the workers who made them, but you are also belittling the artistry that goes into creating intricate, quality pieces of clothing by smaller creators.

Many of us do not have the skill to create our own clothing, and we are impressed meeting people who tell us their outfit is in fact handmade with raw fabric and a sewing machine. But still factory workers who cut and sew hundreds of pieces of clothing a day are viewed as (or at the very least treated like) unskilled workers.

And of course this ties into the broader conversation of how many occupations we consider “unskilled” make up the BACKBONE of our society. If the apocalypse began tomorrow, the most valued skills would include farming, construction, and medical treatment (noting how nurses are underpaid and overworked despite how like 80% their schooling is the same as doctors).

I wanna leave this off with a video I saw a while ago that stuck with me and really planted the seed in my mind for this rant. It features a Chinese man who spends his life painting stroke-for-stroke replicas of The Starry Night to be sold overseas. He quite literally paints like one of the most famous artists of all time, and hasn’t even seen a Van Gogh original in person (at the time of filming, but it looks like he has finally made it to Europe in recent years).

It saddens me, but we should all fight to break the cycle of exploitation until everybody is free from oppression, exploitation, and wage slavery.

Did you know ?

In China, the frog has long been associated with water and rain. Frogs acted as messengers of floods and formed the retinue of the Prince of the River. Since it was believed that frog eggs fall to the ground along with rain or dew, frogs were also called “heavenly hens” (“tien-chi”).

@china @frogs @frogsbtw

Made in China -> Maiden China

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A large 'ship' (east india company) punch bowl for the Swedish market of the 18th century, Qing dynasty (1636–1912)

Now more than ever, America and our allies need to get serious about not funding china's military. Every time china junk is purchased, it goes to procuring weapons and munitions that will be used to kill fellow Americans and others around the world.

This honestly is my favorite video ever

Now more than ever, America and our allies need to get serious about not funding china's military. Every time china junk is purchased, it goes to procuring weapons and munitions that will be used to kill fellow Americans and others around the world.

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