'The World's Factory'

Globalization has allowed goods to circulate around the world, with China becoming a major manufacturing hub due to its relatively low production costs. The label “Made in China” has become a familiar sight on everyday objects, often associated with mass production, affordability, and, at times, imitation or counterfeit goods.

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Meliantha Muliawan is interested in objects that bear the label “Made in China” despite having no apparent connection to Chinese culture. Western toys, souvenirs, and other everyday products may be manufactured in China but represent places, characters, or cultural symbols from elsewhere. Conversely, Chinese motifs are often adopted to promote products from other countries. These objects reveal how a country’s identity can become detached from its cultural imagery, reduced instead to a label indicating where something was made.

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The artist also considers how these associations influence perceptions of Chinese identity. The widespread image of Chinese-made goods as cheap, mass-produced, or imitative can reinforce stereotypes about Chinese people and culture. When a country becomes primarily recognized through the products it manufactures, the value of its cultural identity risks being judged through the perceived quality or price of those products. The “Made in China” label thus becomes more than a statement of origin; it reflects how cultural identity can be simplified and shaped by global commerce.

This observation connects to Meliantha’s own experience as a person of Chinese descent in Indonesia. Although she carries Chinese ancestry, she feels unfamiliar with the culture of her ancestors. The disconnect between an object’s place of manufacture and its cultural appearance echoes her own sense of identity: her Chinese heritage does not automatically translate into a deep understanding of Chinese culture.

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She recognizes this distance as an experience shared by her generation. Migration and globalization have opened access to cultures around the world, while sometimes weakening connections to ancestral heritage. For Chinese descendants whose families have lived outside China for generations, Chinese identity can become something familiar through appearances and stereotypes, yet distant in lived experience and cultural knowledge.

Through this work, Meliantha reflects on the relationship between cultural representation, global commerce, and ethnic identity. By bringing together objects whose origins and visual identities do not align, she questions how Chinese identity is perceived from the outside and understood from within. The work also becomes a personal reminder that reconnecting with ancestral culture requires looking beyond familiar labels and appearances to explore the histories and meanings that lie beneath them.