Mardi Gras Made In China Analysis

To collect is to bring things together. However there is an art to collecting, as it is not simply just bringing miscellaneous things together. There is a common theme for the objects and together they serve as a special meaning to their collector. In both texts “The Museum and the Public” by Stephen Weil and Walter Benjamin “Unpacking My Library” by Walter Benjamin, and in the film “Mardi Gras: Made in China”, the purpose of collecting is to tell a story and to showcase the significance of the objects in the collection.
In Stephen Weil’s essay, he argues “the museum’s role has transformed from one of mastery to one of service” (Weil, 196). According to him, museums have changed their mission from one that cultures the public to one that serves

the public. Before the transformation, museums showcased their collections with a purpose “to raise the level of public understanding, to elevate the spirit of its visitors and to refine and uplift the common taste” (Weil, 196). However museums no longer collect with an intention to spread knowledge; instead their collection function as an educational resource, which aid people in their own learning process. This is especially evident in the majority of mission statements of current museum; many of them are committed to enhancing public education or serving public enjoyment. Weil goes onto question why it was possible for museums to transform, rather than to just simply “go out of business”. In order to answer this question, Weil argues the effect of seeing an object in person, stating that “it makes a claim to be ‘true’ in a way that words or picture can never be” (Weil, 206). In this sense, seeing an object confirms its authenticity. Furthermore, Weil also states that the objects within a collection tell a story or a “lesson that the curator was trying to teach” (Weil, 206). However each individual sees an object differently as they bring their prior knowledge and past judgments to perceive what’s in front of them and the objects may “resonate with their experience and provide new information in ways that confirm and enrich their own view of the world” (Weil, 206). This is why a museum’s collection and how they portray their collection is so important. Museums must recognize the diversity of their visitors; every visitor will perceive their collection different as they bring in their unique perspective. Therefore, Weil believes the purpose of collections in a museum is to enrich and deepen one’s existing belief. In this sense, museums’ purpose and aims for collecting to serve as a medium for learning, in which viewers bring in their own perspective to complete the collection’s overall story or lesson.
Walter Benjamin writes about collecting and a person’s relation to their collection. Benjamin starts off his essay describing the act of unpacking his library and says that book collecting is “the spring tide of memories which surges toward any collector as he contemplates his possessions” (Benjamin, 60). As Benjamin is unpacking his library, he feels nostalgic, as if he is reunited with the books and is able to reminisce the experience of reading or acquiring each one. He then goes onto to talk about the thrill of the act of collecting: “Everything remembered and thought, everything conscious, becomes the pedestal, the frame, the base, the lock of his property. The period, the region, the craftsmanship, the former ownership—for a true collector the whole background of an item adds up to a magic encyclopedia whose quintessence is the fate of his object” (Benjamin, 60). The “magic encyclopedia” is the book’s background story, where it has been before the collector acquires it. To Benjamin, the thrill isn’t from getting the book itself, the thrill comes from being able to look through each books past and adding one’s own imprint to the book. This is different from Weil’s interpretation for collecting. For Weil it is about the education and how collecting can benefit the public good. However for Benjamin, it is a personal relationship. The collector values his collection but it can meaningless to other people. Additionally, Benjamin states “For him [the collector], not only books, but also copies of books have their fates. And in this sense, the most important fate of a copy is its encounter with him, with his own collection. I am not exaggerating when I say that to a true collector the acquisition of an old book is its rebirth” (Benjamin, 61). The collector gives each book its destiny and purpose. Benjamin believes the collector has the power to give books its value. Therefore to Benjamin, the purpose and aims of collecting is for one’s personal possession and the collector give his/her collection its value. At the end of his essay, Benjamin reasserts this personal relationship between a collection and their collector saying that “no one will be able to order a collection with the same understanding that the original owner did” (Benjamin, 67). Benjamin restates the personal relationship of collecting and for the collector, the aims of collecting is for to tell his/ her personal story. Therefore no one else but the collector will be able to understand the true significance of the collection.
Mardi Gras: Made in China is a documentary film that juxtaposes American consumerism and Chinese working class.

The film starts with a scene from a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, where drunk partygoers trade beads for nudity and follows the trail of the bead necklaces from New Orleans all the way back to its origins in China, where it was made. In China, the workers, mainly women, work and live in the factory under distressing conditions. These workers work for 11 hours a day and for extremely low wages. They live in crowded and dilapidated compounds and eat cheap factory food. The film also mentions some New Orleans partygoers can spend about $500 on the beads in a night, whereas the factory workers earn on average ten cents an hour and make around $2-$3 dollars a day. The workers have to fulfill a certain quota each day and failure to do so results in a ten percent cut in wages. Most of the money they make is sent back to their families. Toward the end of the film, pictures of the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans were shown to the Chinese workers and footage of the Chinese workers were shown to Mardi Gras partygoers. The Chinese were shocked to see that the beads were purchased at a thousand times higher than the amount that they are paid to make it. Similarly, American partygoers were also shocked to see that the seemingly worthless beads they throw around are made with such strenuous work effort. This stark contrast represents the different value of the

beads to American and to Chinese factory workers. To Americans, the act of collecting these beads is one that is considered an enjoyment and an accomplishment; the more beads they get, the more amount of time they’ve showed their frontal nudity. Thus showing how much fun they’ve had. To them, these beads are worthless- nothing more than just string of beads used for entertainment. However to the Chinese workers, the purpose of collecting these beads is a way of life. Many of them have sacrifice their lives in order to support their family and many also work in hopes of a better life for themselves. The beads are much more valuable to the Chinese because it is how they make their living and it represents their dreams and self- sacrifice. In this sense the purpose of collecting the beads tells two contrasting stories from two contrasting collectors. The significance of the object is also opposite for each group of collector. This is similar to Benjamin who argues that purpose of collecting is for one’s own personal desire. The Chinese desire money, or rather they need money, and so to them they make and collect the beads for its monetary value. However the Americans collect the beads with a purpose to have fun.
Throughout the following three examples, it is possible to see that the purpose of collecting is to tell a story.

Although the story many vary in its intended audience. In Weil’s essay, the story is intended toward for a public audience, whereas in Benjamin’s essay and the Mardi Gras documentary, the story behind the collection is one that is personal. Additionally, there are significances to the object itself within each collection. In Weil’s essay, the objects within a museum collection are used as a foundation for people to further build their knowledge upon. In Benjamin’s essay, each itself has a background story and the collector is able to complete the book’s journey by making it a part of their collection. In the Mardi Gras documentary, the significance of a specific bead necklace represents extra money for the workers and it makes the difference as to whether or not they fulfill their quota. Additionally, each bead is a symbol of how their work will pay off; whether they will use their wages to support their family or to pursue dreams of their

own.