Special Feature: Post Chinese New Year Slowdown
Years ago our webmaster Jim provided a very insightful look at why doll orders see a sudden delay after Chinese New Year. He is Chinese himself and is our main communicator with our non-English speaking companies. This was originally posted in our Facebook notes section (and who still uses that feature, really? ;) ), so here’s a look at what he had to say:
“A brief explanation why during Chinese New Year (CNY) the production of Ball Jointed Dolls from Chinese doll companies takes a long time.
There are a few factors that make this happen:
The Chinese doll companies traditionally like to run CNY promotions. So during CNY, the dolls for a particular popular doll company can be as high as double the normal amount. That creates a huge backlog of orders.
Chinese people traditionally take 2 weeks off during CNY. Doll companies as well as other business are "forced" to stop for 2 weeks. That's why usually in Jan/Feb every year, the Chinese foreign export is almost always non-existent. This situation is not unique to doll companies.
Most of urban workers in China are "migrant workers" who are from the countryside. When they go back to their villages to celebrate CNY, sometimes they would make a decision to stay home and not go back to the mega cities like Shanghai, or ShenZhen to get back on their jobs. The companies will have to scramble to find new workers, and spend time to train them. This further slows down production. This situation is also not unique to doll companies.
Most Chinese doll companies are located in southern China. Their studio/factory are usually open-air facilities due to the toxicity of the resin (resin dust) and fumes from the paints. After CNY, the weather in southern China is often wet with drizzle everyday for 2 months. During such time, it's extremely hard to paint a resin doll due to the moisture in the air. This slows down production for dolls that have make-up painted on.
While these factors affects most Chinese doll companies, some Korean doll companies who base their production in China are also adversely affected as well."
With that in mind (after you probably already placed an order with a company during CNY and are now worried you made a mistake), there is some good news. Since this was posted in 2012, doll companies have learned to adapt to this risk. Companies like Doll Chateau, DollZone, and others who provide gift dolls have started making their event dolls months before the events start. This helps keep the production time on the orders shorter and helps provide a steady stream of work for their artists during non-event times.
We’re also very proud of how efficient we see the companies become as their new employees adapt to the workplace. Most artists or customer service employees enter the business without ever handling a BJD before. In a relatively short amount of time, they are taught the trade and become very proficient in their work. When we look back on the year, we see an average of a month’s time shaved off the wait times at the beginning of the year to the end.
So while we wish to inform customers of the possible delays they may face, we also want to give a shout-out to our BJD companies.We greatly appreciate their efforts to continuously provide us with quality products! It’s times like this that we really like to express “It will be worth the wait!” :D