Waiting in Keqiao - ePrints Soton

Cheuk, Ka-Kin (2024) Waiting in Keqiao.

Record type: Art Design Item

Abstract

“Waiting in Keqiao”

ICAS 13 exhibition ‘The Waiting Room’, in Surabaya, Indonesia. 28 July - 2 August 2024.

Dr Ka-Kin CHEUK
University of Southampton

In the county-level district of Keqiao, a global hub for low-cost fabric trading in Zhejiang Province, China, waiting is a constant experience for both people and goods. Over half of the local population, including Chinese and foreign traders, especially those from India, Pakistan, and the Middle East, work in the fabric trading industries and related sectors. Many of them spend most of their time in offices, waiting for customers to make inquiries, collect samples, or call for updates on shipments. Fabrics often wait for long periods before traveling across the globe. Fabrics stored in warehouses wait to be processed, transported to shipping ports, and then shipped across oceans.

The fabric trading activities in Keqiao - the focus of my long-term and ongoing ethnographic research since 2009 - are an integral part of the broader global textile supply chain that sources raw materials, processes them into fabrics, and then transports those fabrics to reach the next round of buyers. These downstream buyers will then manufacture the fabrics into final textile products - such as garments, home textiles, and other consumer goods - before they ultimately reach consumers. Within this larger system, the people and goods in Keqiao are constantly waiting on one another - whether it's fabric traders waiting for buyers to place orders, transportation companies waiting to pick up shipments, or warehouse operators waiting to receive new inventory. This interplay of waiting is not limited to just those in Keqiao. Stakeholders at every stage of the supply chain, from raw material suppliers to end consumers, are all impacted by these delays and interdependencies. Retailers waiting for new inventory, consumers waiting for products to become available, and even the end consumers themselves are all part of this complex web of waiting experiences.

Ultimately, no single party - whether in Keqiao or elsewhere in the supply chain - is able to fully control the timeframes involved. These long and convoluted chains mean that the waiting times remain subject to ongoing communication, intense negotiation, and closely coordinated activities across the entire textile value chain. This helps limit the potential for any particular player to accumulate outsized power or authority within the system, serving as an everyday counterweight against the existing hegemonic regimes - especially those perpetuated by the global North - in international trade.

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