In the early 1990s Breyer made the decision to move production to China. Plastic injection molding is an expensive business, each steel mold costs more than $100,000 to tool and it stands to reason why this move was made. It's cheaper long term to produce something in a country where technology is such fast paced, that it's actually cheaper to produce things like toys and other items.
Asia as a whole has over the last decade seen a boost in how fast technology has advanced with Japan being largely considered the technology super power of the world with how advanced their technologies are. Let's face it, any country that can program nanobots to heal, is an advancement not yet seen here in the Western world and more than likely, will be a very slow thing to have happen.
But one area that a very serious phobia has begun, is the Model Horse community. While it's certainly been there for longer than I've been alive, the fact is, I'm seeing it more and more. And it's been on the rise ever since the Pandemic broke out. In fact, in almost every horse model group, I will come across a comment in regards to China being the problem for literally everything model related.
Prior to 2020 such comments weren't as common place. Sure the odd one would pop up but not like they are today and they need to stop. We as a community seem to be forgetting, we are a mixing pot of cultures and diversities. In this, I mean, it's not just white people or people from the Western nations in this community. We have hobbyists from Pakistan, Iraq, Africa, Jamaica, Japan, China, Mongolia, Russia, South Korea, and more. But very rarely, do we see these nationalities speak up in our groups, despite being in them. Why?
Well I can't speak for the others but I can and I will speak for my friends from Japan, China and South Korea. They're scared. Many people in the Breyer community forgets what we, the Western world did to anyone that was Asian, after the Pearl Harbor attacks. Canada, en mass, put these people, no matter if they were Japanese or South Korean, into concentration camps. It didn't matter if they'd committed a crime or not. Japphobia was and still is a thing. And the Japanese haven't forgotten. Why should they?
While yes, what happened at Pearl Harbor was horrible and I won't ever deny that. The fact is, we were at war. After the war, Western families had almost everything given back to them. Their homes, businesses, etc. But those from Japan, living in the USA and Canada? They had their homes taken away. They had their businesses taken away. And at one point, Japanese people ranked the highest in our nation in shelters than in any other nation. The fact is and was, the businesses that the Western families were given? Formally belonged to their Japanese neighbors. The homes many Western families were given, bought, or rented, formally belonged to a Japanese family.
But I digress.
I see comments almost every day now about how the quality control falls solely on the shoulders of an entire nation. This way of thinking is so outdated, that's it's deeply disturbing it even exists in today's world. This way of thinking is what generates hatred. It's what causes hate crimes. Did China bugger up with the pandemic? Sure. But the entire world buggered up on how it was ultimately handled. We saw entire families be ripped apart and divided because of a virus with a 99% survival rate (proven by WHO and the CDC). But to this very day, we see people saying comments like "They are mass produced in China. Apparently their quality standards have changed."
This comment and variations of it, are filled with such spite, such hate, such venom, that those within the smaller Asian model communities, rarely, if ever, interact with the rest of us. They are rarely seen. Rarely heard from. Rarely seen selling or buying from others on Facebook. And the above comment is the number one reason why.
I once did a poll on my Twitter, asking my Asian friends to vote as to why they don't interact with the model horse communities on Facebook and I was shocked and even horrified by what I was told. I had things such as "I don't feel safe commenting" or "I'm scared I'll be judged based on my ethnicity" or "I feel like my being Chinese would be judged for wanting to buy a Breyer even though I love horses." And the most shocking comment of all "I don't feel safe in those groups. They're too toxic."
Y'all, we need to do better than this, because if this "They are mass produced in China. Apparently their quality standards have changed." is our best, or the best we can and will do, then all we're gonna do is drive people away. And in fact, it's already happened and is happening. I have seen such heartbreaking comments coming from this community that I genuinely wonder who the hell hurt you so damn badly, that you would willingly spew hateful comments towards an ethnic group of people, who are largely a minority within this community.
I have bought products from all over the world, with varying degrees of dissatisfaction. I've bought products from the USA, with them being made and produced in the USA only to have hundreds of dollars worth of items, needing to be thrown out. I've had the same issue with buying local products right here in Canada. I've had the same issue buying from the UK, Asia, etc. But then. I've also had varying degrees of satisfaction. I've had items come from China, that costed me only $1 and for the quality and longevity of the product purchased, I would of happily spent thousands.
I have a genuine sterling silver Aquamarine ring, that I bought from a retailer in China. Paid only $1 and when I had it appraised, the jeweler said the ring was worth thousands just due to the quality, longevity, and the craftsmanship alone. But that's the thing. I've bought rings from the USA and had to throw them out. I've bought rings from Canada and had issues so severe, they've put me in the ER due to a serious, allergic reaction (I'm highly allergic to copper which many 'sterling silver plated' rings, are actually covering - is copper).
The fact is, the nation isn't responsible for quality control, the company is. It's in charge of making sure each item that comes out of their factory is up to standards. But what exactly is the correct standard anymore? In today's model horse community, we have become so nit picky, that it'd be literally impossible for Breyer - or any company for that matter - to make something we'd all be satisfied with. Someone, somewhere, would ultimately find something so minuscule to bitch about and then, you'd have the above comment being spewed "well ever since the company moved to x nation".
I have personally bought models, many people would of scoffed at me buying. They've got flaws. They've got issues. But I'm not showing these models and even if I was, I'm not showing to increase my prestige, give myself bragging rights, collect ribbons I don't need, or trophies I don't need (nor want). If I live show or photoshow, I do so to have fun. And far too often, people in this community have lost sight of just that. I'm not collecting to increase my self worth. I'm not collecting so that one day I can mass sell my models. I'm collecting because it's just that, it's fun.
But I must also remind myself of my upbringing. If I was ever caught saying what some within this community have said, about other nations, I'd have my ass up around my ears. If it was one thing that boiled my grandmother's blood it was that; being a phobic towards another human being for no reason. She absolutely despised anyone who was like that and would call them out any time, any place, any where. She didn't care if she hurt your feelings, didn't care if she embarrassed you either. If you were rude towards another human, or even racist towards another human and had no right to be, you got called out and I'd defy anyone to try and mess with her. She was 4"0 and weighed less than 100lbs soaking wet, but trust me when I say, she was a spitfire.
So I guess my upbringing has alot to do with how I view things I can't control. I buy a model with flaws? Ah well. I'm just glad it's in my collection. Can I fix it? If so, how much? And a good chunk of the time, I don't even send models out to be fixed cause this hobby absolutely scares the shit out me, with how many models get stolen daily, nevermind yearly, by so called "fixers".
But comments like this "They are mass produced in China. Apparently their quality standards have changed." need to stop. You're setting a bad example for this hobby and painting all of us within it, in a bad light and it's a light, we 100% do not need shined on us. We have enough issues as is, with scammers, thieves, etc. We don't need the title of "racists jerks" slapped on as well. We don't need people avoiding us at shows etc.
I've seen how good this hobby can be. Let's get back to that and stop being phobic jerks towards each other.
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