Proof that China can make about anything you want, only cheaper, is at this year’s Canton Fair, the largest trade fair in the world each year. Cluas has been walking the booths. One of the most interesting things is the African doll. Afro-topped beat-grinders or topless villagers, they’re all here, mixed in with the lampshades, patio tables and rattan bowls, all under one vast roof near the Yuexi subway station in Guangzhou. Made of polymer resin, the 32cm tall dolls, made of polymer resin, wholesale here for between RMB4-RMB7 (EUR0.44- EUR0.88). Proof of how much they’re marked up by western retailers who come here to source: the dolls sell for up to EUR15 in European shops according to two of the Chinese makers, Quanzhou Fengze AOK Craft Co and Spring Arts & Crafts Co, both located near Quanzhou, a city in southerly Fujian province.
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1999 - 'The eMusic Market', written by Gordon McConnell it focuses on how the internet could change the music industry. Boy was he on the money, years before any of us had heard of an iPod or of Napster.