March 17th
Today our only scheduled activity was a factory visit of Jiangyin Shule Hometextile Co Ltd. The factory manufactures sheet sets and quilted comforters for Walmart, Lifung & Dorma, BBB, IKEA, Kohl’s, Macy’s, and JCPenny. Our Chinese hosts had a warm welcome prepared for us at the factory.
All of the students and staff loved the interpretation of the Center’s name. Maggie’s English was very good, but the written materials reminded me of the language barrier we face in China. Chinese pronunciation and character system are very different from English. This makes it difficult to even learn key phrases or find locations marked by signs with Chinese characters.
I was asking Nancy, our professor, about the differences between English and Chinese. She explained that each Chinese character is a word or syllable and multiple characters can be combined to form different words. Also, the same word may have a different meaning depending on its context. This made sense to me because I learned in my professional communication class that China has a very high context culture in general. Also, characters must be memorized instead of learning the alphabet and using it to sound out words. This idea fits with the different teaching styles of the US and China. I have heard that learning in China is more focused on memorization from my Asian classmates at Madison. My experience is that the US is more about learning the concepts to apply and thinking through things yourself. At the factory, the tour started with a short introduction from “Big Boss” and presentation from Maggie, a Chinese merchandiser on their Kohl’s account. She walked through the different design processes and machines. We also learned that the factory has an Environmental Impact Appraisal Certificate. The factory conserves energy, water, recycles paper, and reduces all waste to landfills. When we actually walked around the facilities, I was not familiar with the process and many of the machines just looked like very large roles spinning large fabric sheets. I wish I could post pictures, but our hosts asked us not to take pictures on the tour.
It was interesting to have design students on the trip because they were able to explain some of the machines and processes that they have learned about in class. I asked Kailey Smith, a textile design major on the trip, about how this visit related to her studies in Madison.
Did you recognize the processes we saw in the factory?
“I definitely recognized the process. It was very interesting to see it first hand after learning about it in class.”
Do you think this will help you with your major when you return to the US?
“It seems that now I will have more of a connection to the machines and processes as I have viewed the end result of the textile design process. I now know that there is a place for me in this industry in the future and I more clearly see how I will fit into it.“
After the tour, we had lunch in the company’s client dining room. Maggie was at my table and we asked her about life in China. She said that traditional Chinese meals really are family style like we have been eating in restaurants here. Every person in her family will have a small plate of rice and eat directly from shared main dishes in the middle of the table.
I enjoyed our trip to the home textile factory in Jiangyin. We learned about the textile manufacturing process, environmental initiatives, the language barrier, and about traditional Chinese meals.
Post written by Carly Miller
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