

The Chinese Lingerie Venders of Egypt - nichtich
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/10/learning-to-speak-lingerie

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brc
"While Lin and Chen were building their small lingerie empire, they noticed
that there was a lot of garbage sitting in open piles around Asyut. They were
not the first people to make this observation. But they were the first to
respond by importing a polyethylene-terephthalate bottle-flake washing
production line, which is manufactured in Jiangsu province, and which allows
an entrepreneur to grind up plastic bottles, wash and dry the regrind at high
temperatures, and sell it as recycled material.

“I saw that it was just lying around, so I decided that I could recycle it and
make money,” Lin told me. He and his wife had no experience in the industry,
but in 2007 they established the first plastic-bottle recycling facility in
Upper Egypt. Their plant is in a small industrial zone in the desert west of
Asyut, where it currently employs thirty people and grinds up about four tons
of plastic every day. Lin and Chen sell the processed material to Chinese
people in Cairo, who use it to manufacture thread. This thread is then sold to
entrepreneurs in the Egyptian garment industry, including a number of Chinese.
It’s possible that a bottle tossed onto the side of the road in Asyut will
pass through three stages of Chinese processing before returning to town in
the form of lingerie, also to be sold by Chinese."

Heh. Awesome.

One thing I always notice when you see documentaries of travels in under-
developed countries, that there's always a lot of rubbish sitting around, and
also a lot of people sitting around. I always wonder why they don't just start
by picking up their trash? I don't pretend to understand the dynamics of a
place through a TV show, but keeping your own area tidy would seem to be a
simple thing to do to improve your own quality of life, and it can cost
virtually nothing.

~~~
jpatokal
What do you with the trash after you pick it up? The kind of underdeveloped
countries with piles of trash sitting around also have no functional municipal
garbage collection, at least in those areas with piles of trash sitting
around.

~~~
shardinator
Yes I believe this is the main reason for not picking it up, and for it lying
around in the first place. However if there is a way to profit from it, that
could mean the private sector can turn things around.

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mrwilliamchang
Made me see the world a little differently. “The Chinese will sell people
anything they like. They don’t ask any questions. They don’t care what you do
with what they sell you. They won’t ask whether the Egyptians are going to
hold elections, or repress people, or throw journalists into jail. They don’t
care. The Americans think, If everybody is like me, they’re less likely to
attack me. The Chinese don’t think like that. They don’t try to make the world
be like them. Their strategy is to make economic linkages, so if you break
these economic linkages it’s going to hurt you as much as it hurts them.”

~~~
chii
the modern chinese philosophy is to mind your own business, and survive,
generate wealth for your children. Try to co-exist, and try to not make
enemies (which doesn't mean you make friends), ut if you're troublesome, then
stay the hell away.

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codezero
"The most important word in the lingerie dialect is arusa, or “bride.” The
Chinese pronounce it alusa, and they use it constantly; in many Cairo
neighborhoods, there are Chinese who go door-to-door with sacks of dresses and
underwear, calling out “Alusa! Alusa!” In Chinese shops, owners use it as a
form of address for any potential customer. To locals, it sounds flattering
and a little funny: “Beautiful blide! Look at this, blide! What do you want,
blide?”"

really? Is this stereotype actually true, or is this embellished? This just
seems over the top.

~~~
desdiv
Especially considering that Mandarin Chinese differentiates between R and L
sounds; Japanese is the one that doesn't[0].

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_/l/_by_Japanese_speakers)

~~~
jpatokal
The immigrants in the story are from Zhejiang, so they likely natively speak a
Wu dialect that does indeed not have an /r/ sound:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzhou_dialect#Phonology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzhou_dialect#Phonology)

And even the sound we write "r" when romanizing Mandarin is pretty distant
from an Arabic /r/ (ر).

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese#Initials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandarin_Chinese#Initials)

~~~
desdiv
Thank you for the correction. I stand corrected.

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jpatokal
Peter Hessler is the author of (among other things) "Country Driving", whose
insipid title hides a fascinating story of China's evolution viewed from the
ground level.

[http://www.amazon.com/Country-Driving-Chinese-Road-
Trip/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/Country-Driving-Chinese-Road-
Trip/dp/006180410X)

------
arjn
I feel Egypt's "Zabbaleen" should be mentioned here :
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabbaleen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabbaleen)

There was an excellent documentary on them a few years ago :

[http://www.garbagedreams.com/](http://www.garbagedreams.com/)

~~~
qohen
As it happens, in addition to writing the article under discussion in this
post, Peter Hessler also wrote another New Yorker piece about one of the
zabbaleen:

[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/tales-
trash](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/13/tales-trash)

------
jscheel
My wife and I just visited Egypt for two weeks. It was quite interesting to
walk down a street in Cairo and look at hijab/niqab shops right next to
seriously raunchy lingerie shops. We though it might be a cosmopolitan thing,
but we noticed it even in the more conservative towns we visited.

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lming
It's a fascinating read! I released my app a while ago and found most users
are Arab. I am eager to learn more about my customers and this article
provides great insights.

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mud_dauber
Great read. Now I know not to try a manufacturing business in Egypt.
Unfortunately.

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msie
Such a riveting read!

