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I think you're coming to this with preconceived notions. Not all artists registered are "cheap Chinese labor," and that label is also disparaging to the artists

I think you're coming to this with preconceived notions. Not all artists registered are "cheap Chinese labor," and that label is also disparaging to the artists that do happen to be in China, and are Chinese, including myself, as I was born in China. I wouldn't like it if you called Instapainting a piece of work produced by cheap Chinese labor (which it could very well be described since I only made about 36k salary in the first year). That being said, for this product category (photo to painting), nearly all sellers on Etsy, Ebay, or other sites, are dominated by Chinese sellers. We don't produce the product, rather these sellers are selling through us. > I think the concept is cool, but I'm not sure people would be so willing to pay if they knew some desperate artist in China was getting paid below minimum wage to create the artwork. I guess what I'm saying is you are selling the idea of a premium service at a great price—too good to be true—and it is, because it's not true. I can't guarantee all the wages the artists are paid, as many sellers on the site are simply reselling or doling orders out to subcontractors (the artists). However from the ones I've visited, they are paid well above minimum wage, and in fact above the average salary in China. Most people do know that the paintings come from China, and I'm actually one of the only sites that publicly reveals this (I released an article about the painters in China on the company blog). But as you can also understand, putting big text on our home page that says "Get paintings from cheap Chinese labor" would sound condescending, not be 100% true (since we're a marketplace behind the scenes), and probably negatively affect sales as well.

themagician 10y ago
You are totally correct. The Western notion of China and Chinese labor is totally wrong. Still, do you think people would care if they knew? I ask because I would have totally bought this had I stumbled onto it yesterday not knowing what I know now. I would have bought this for a friend and never thought twice about it. After reading this post I definitely would not purchase. Irrational? Maybe. Edit: I see your response above. Thanks. I may actually purchase. Just want to think about it. :)
- chrischen 10y ago
  I got a lot of publicity from an article about the Chinese painters that I published on Medium, so I think many people do know. Some people take issue with it, understandably, but also for the wrong reasons. The article is also linked at the bottom of the homepage, albeit it is a bit hidden. You probably take issue with it because you think you are exploiting the workers, when in reality they want you to buy from them and witholding your purchase hurts them economically. The bulk of the money you spend goes to the artists, after all. Otherwise China wouldn't enact such protectionist trade policies that encourage mass exports. If you take issue with it because you want to encourage domestic economy growth, then avoiding imported Chinese paintings would be proper, however not all our sellers are Chinese. We will soon be adding filters to discriminate by country of origin.
- bdr 10y ago
  "I'm biased against Chinese labor. Do you think anyone is biased against Chinese labor?"
- coldtea 10y ago
  >You are totally correct. The Western notion of China and Chinese labor is totally wrong. Well, not that wrong. Western businessmen have a very accurate notion of Chinese labor, and opportunities from lower wages / mass production there.

themagician 10y ago

You are totally correct. The Western notion of China and Chinese labor is totally wrong. Still, do you think people would care if they knew? I ask because I would have totally bought this had I stumbled onto it yesterday not knowing what I know now. I would have bought this for a friend and never thought twice about it. After reading this post I definitely would not purchase. Irrational? Maybe. Edit: I see your response above. Thanks. I may actually purchase. Just want to think about it. :)

chrischen 10y ago
I got a lot of publicity from an article about the Chinese painters that I published on Medium, so I think many people do know. Some people take issue with it, understandably, but also for the wrong reasons. The article is also linked at the bottom of the homepage, albeit it is a bit hidden. You probably take issue with it because you think you are exploiting the workers, when in reality they want you to buy from them and witholding your purchase hurts them economically. The bulk of the money you spend goes to the artists, after all. Otherwise China wouldn't enact such protectionist trade policies that encourage mass exports. If you take issue with it because you want to encourage domestic economy growth, then avoiding imported Chinese paintings would be proper, however not all our sellers are Chinese. We will soon be adding filters to discriminate by country of origin.
bdr 10y ago
"I'm biased against Chinese labor. Do you think anyone is biased against Chinese labor?"
coldtea 10y ago
>You are totally correct. The Western notion of China and Chinese labor is totally wrong. Well, not that wrong. Western businessmen have a very accurate notion of Chinese labor, and opportunities from lower wages / mass production there.