Sweatshop is probably true, but I'm telling you, you just cannot resist the price as a consumer. Tooth filling for 29 HKD (3.7 USD), you just can't beat that.
Hongkonger are extremely realistic and practical. Price low? Use it
My native language is Cantonese. Our education system has English in the syllabus. I did think I was good at it, until I became REALLY good at it after consuming English YouTube videos for an amount of time.
If you use it frequently enough, you will be good at it.
Don't know if the same applies for Korean, as the Internet is a very English-centered place.
It was the old image of Chinese products (edit: also services), but recently their quality has increased significantly. On top of that, the price is much lower than alternatives.
This is the cultural differences between the west and Japan. Japanese people really likes big robots but the west just doesn't buy that concept. Therefore early big robot anime didn't really made it into the western market. It's only when they started reducing their sizes (astroboy, I mean, is it even a robot?) that it started to get popular.
It makes sense, but it hurts. Sometimes I talk about niche Asian stuff and get blasted by people assuming I'm American.