Everything made in China

[Bijoux]

http://www.theworld.org/2010/01/06/v...made-in-china/

interesting article

[Pilgrim]

China and Korea have inexpensive labor, and they increasingly are gaining expertise in their manufacturing and craft industries - not that they didn't already have hundreds to thousands of years of craft expertise in their cultures.

That's an increasingly winning combination.

[j.stemmler]

it's going to be a really interesting instrument market in the upcoming decade. with the chinese builders getting better and better, the master-craftsmen throughout the rest of the world could have a hard time competing. although, im sure most people with $10,000+ instruments know that their is cheaper options, but they bought their instrument anyway. it will be interesting to see how this all pans out. really cool article.

[John Sprague]

The level of competition has driven quality way up. I was showing violas to a dealer yesterday, and he picked a few out of a bunch. He said five years ago he would have grabbed them all up in a heart beat, but now the options are many and the quality across the board is constantly climbing.