there's a major prejudice against chinese-made goods here. when we were in the clothing portion of the bazaar earlier in the week every seller tried to emphasize that the clothes were made in turkey. what they really were saying is that they weren't made in china. and what that really means is that the clothes aren't bad quality.
earlier in the trip one kazakh told me that most of the stuff in their stores are made in china. "they are not good quality, like you get in the u.s." pointing to my coat. when i showed her my coat's "made in china" label, she said "did you get that here?" she was genuinely surprised when i told him that almost everything in stores in the u.s. is made in china as well.
i'm not sure whether this is just a stereotype about chinese products or if the chinese really do dump off their worst crap into the central asian markets. in the u.s. people grumble about how everything is chinese made, but few think that the label automatically means a cheap crappy product. in the u.s. just about everything is made there, whether really good or really bad.
