Without even knowing since when, our life is full of ‘Made in China’s. They are strong because they are cheap and abundant in the quantity, and we recognize the domestic products better than them just because of ‘Made in Korea.’ So there are many things that I can find only by looking around my desk - can I live without them?

After I made up my mind to live without them for a week, I set a list on the day before with a certain criteria. Fortunately, my cell phone was ‘Made in Korea’ which I was pretty afraid if it was ‘Made in China.’ However, my laptop was ‘Made in China’ which takes a huge part of my life but, for in case of turning in assignments, I allowed myself to use computers at the school library only for my classes. Also, necessary and undefined items such as my contacts, glasses, and toothbrush were accepted, too. While I was looking around the entities in my room and putting the names of banned things on the list, I thought that ‘It would be easier to just not get in to this room.’ ‘Made in China’s were that much abundant.

On the first day, I got up in my bed, but the wooden frame of my bed is ‘Made in China’ so I should not sleep at my bed for a week. Maybe I should sleep on quilts for a week even though it would give me a slight backache. In the morning, I almost turned my stereo on to put some music on out of habit, but a yellow-reminding sticker stopped me. My stereo was also ‘Made in China.’ I felt heavy because I imagined my day to be very boring.

On the second day, I found two more shocking ‘Made in China’s. My acoustics and keyboard were also taken away from me. In case of keyboard, the main board is not ‘Made in China’ but so was the AC adaptor, making no way to turn it on. Now I could not listen to music nor play.

Three days left, and I had Jjajangmyeon as dinner at my house. I was unpacking the chopstick without noticing and the phrase ‘Made in China’ took my sight. I would not even recognize it in the usual time, and I was annoyed by the huge size of font. Fortunately I was in my house so I could use chopsticks at my house, but if I were at school, I might have had to literally drink up Jjajangmyeon.

On Thursday, I felt a little chilly so I took my cardigan out and I checked the tag. Oh my god, my favorite and the best-fit-for-today yellow cardigan was ‘Made in China.’ It was almost like the cardigan cheated on me. ‘How many stuff does China produce so What the hell everything I touch is ‘Made in China?’ Starting from the clothes and electronics such as iPod, laptop, and PMP were all ‘Made in China’ which I could not even touch, I feel so much heavy. Was I depending on ‘Made in China’ products that much?

On a sweet Friday that merely showed the end of this project, I decided to bake some cookies. Hmm, let’s see. All the materials were domestic and the oven was not ‘Made in China’ so yes, I could bake cookies! Oh no, the baking pan was ‘Made in China,’ but I could use other pans. After baking the cookies, ‘Made in China’ annoyed me again when I was packing the cookies to give out to my friends. After all, I chose the plan B but it was acceptable. However, the gift-bag to bring those cookies together was ‘Made in China.’ I looked for paper bags in my house but it was hard to find one so I decided to hand carry them.

On weekends, I mostly stayed at home so not much distress occurred, except for one thing that I couldn’t take pictures at Ssamjigil, Insadong, but it was okay that my adorable cell phone allowed me to do so.

Even though it was just a week, living without ‘Made in China’ was as tricky as living without speaking. It shows how much the ‘Made in China’s take place in our everyday life. Although various opinions meet about the quality of ‘Made in China’s, but it is definitely true that they are life-assisting entities. If you want to check out how much ‘Made in China’ affecting your life, why do not you try living as I did, even just for a day?