PNNL

Abstract

A stunning documentary film titled “Mardi Gras: Made in China” provides an insightful and engaging perspective on the globalization of desire for material consumption. Tracing the life cycle of Mardi Gras beads from a small factory in Fuzhou, China to the streets of the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans the viewer grasps the near universal human desire to strive for an affluent lifestyle. David Redmon, an independent film maker, follows the beads' genealogy back to the industrial town of Fuzhou, China, to the factory that is the world's largest producer of Mardi Gras beads and related party trinkets. He explores how these frivolous and toxic products affect the people who make them and those who consume them. Redmon captures the daily reality of a Chinese manufacturing facility. It’s workforce of approximately 500 teenage girls, and a handful of boys, live like prisoners in a fenced-in compound. These young people, often working 16-hour days, are constantly exposed to styrene, a chemical known to cause cancer — all for about 10 cents an hour. In addition to indoor pollution, the decrepit coal-fired manufacturing facilities are symbolic of China’s fast rise to the world’s top producer of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.1 The process of industrialization and modernization in China is happening at an unprecedented rate and scale.