138 IN THE SHADOW OF THE DRAGON FROM FINISHED TOYS TO THE FIBER INSIDE AND BEYOND Most of the local toy manufacturers responded to the competition by putting pressure on their employees to work harder and faster. Fang was convinced that this approach could go only so far. He decided instead to focus on reducing the cost of a key component of stuffed toys--the synthetic fiber used for stuffing, which accounts for about a third of the toys' production cost. In the 1990s, toy companies in China had to pay high prices for imported fibers, and Fang was convinced that replacing the imported fiber with a domestic product would save money. He acquired a local fiber com- pany and set up a joint venture with a South Korean company that provided the technology and equipment to produce the polypropy- lene fiber used to fill stuffed animals. Fang found that he could lower the cost of the stuffing by more than $800 per ton. The sav- ings gave him a significant cost advantage over the competition.