shan zhai culture

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Innovation or Imitation Shan-Zhai Phenomenon in China

Shan-Zhai, is one of the most popular word in China inthe year 2008. This word is originally from Cantonese, emerging at sixties in HongKong, it represented the history of growing out of nothing of HongKong manufactures. At that time, there were many tiny-scale, no-equipments, no-management small workshops in Hong Kong, theyhad to strive very hard to survive. For Hongkongese, Shan-Zhai isthe spirit that accomplishes todays Hong Kong 1 .

In China mainland, Shan-Zhai means small size, small scale, orunderground factory. It represents copycat, fake; quick, rapidmanufacturing; the "Democracy of Goods". Shan-Zhai started inyear 2003 from copycats of mobile phone and soon expanded tofake and knockoff consumer electronic manufacture industry,became an economic phenomenon, but nowadays, almosteverything can be Shan-Zhai-ed, ranging from pharmaceuticals, tothe Olympic Birds Nest; from persons who mimic celebrities tocomedies that parody well-known films and TV sitcoms; therefore,there are Shan-Zhai laptops, Shah-Zhai soap operas, Shan-Zhai stars, and even a Shan-Zhai Spring Festival Gala. 2 Shan-

Zhai spreads everywhere.Chinese listed top 10 Shan-Zhai affairs in year 2008.

#1. Shan-Zhai Olympic Torch Replay, in Henan Province

1 Translated

from Rose LvQius blog.2 UPI Asia .com,

http://www.upiasia.com/Politics/2009/01/20/the_unofficial_shanzhai_china/5501/

QuickTime and adecompressor

are needed to see this picture.


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#2. Shan-Zhai Street in NanjingA brand new business street of all Shan-Zhai stores to sell Shan-Zhaiproducts appearing in Nanjing city. Days later, the street wasdisappeared in the intervention of the local business administrationoffice.

#3. Shan-Zhai English Version of Say a word in HeartSay a word in heart is a old Chinese pop song < >. The

lyrics are translated into Shan-Zhai English (which means veryChinglish).


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you don't carry gun I don't carry gun Say a word in heart, I think my home too, of ten think my mother is white in hair

Also, the song is integrated into the film , so itlooks like it is Tom Hanks is sing the song.

#4. Shan-Zhai search engine, BaiGooHoo (Bai Gu Hu)It is an integrated search engine:

Bai is from Chinese search engine Baidu.com ;Goo is from Google, and Chinese name Gu Ge ;Hu is from Yahoo, and Chinese name Ya Hu .

#5. Shan-Zhai film of


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This is the main character played by a young boy in Chongqing city.

#6. Shan-Zhai Jay Chou endorsed TV commercial

Jay Chou is one of the most popular pop singer in Asia, this youngboy looks alike Jay Chou very much. So the advertiser endorses himin this commercial to catch more attention.

#7. Shan-Zhai Birds Nest in Hangzhou

10 local peasants spent 15 days to braid into a bamboo Birds Nestin a ratio of 20:1 by using 800 bamboos, as facilities for sports, likebeach valleyball, archery, etc.


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#8. Shan-Zhai celebrityA college girl takes picture for herslef with funny, exaggerate posesand dressing styles.

#9. Shan-Zhai Spring Festival Gala

This shanzhai Spring Festival gala is not simply a clone of the 25-year-old traditional show presented by CCTV on Chinese Lunar New

Years eve. Instead, it makes fun of the official version, withunknown actors and a program closely related to ordinary Chinese

to be broadcast over the Internet, the shanzhai gala could beattractive as a non-mainstream and even anti-mainstream


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alternative. But unfortunately, it was not allowed to be broadcastingon internet at Chinese New Year Eve.

#10. Shan-Zhai website of Ministry of Human Resources and SocialSecurity of the Peoples Republic of China

This is a totally fake website of MOHRSS. Since it is illegal, it wasshut down soon after it was discovered.


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There is one more Shan-Zhai thing missing in the list, that is Shan-Zhai national emblem of China.

This appreas in a county in Shanxi ( ) Province, due to lack of money to buy a good quality national emblem, the county has to


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make one by themselves and hang in the public.

So, how Chinese see this Shan-Zhai phenomenon? There are manydebates coming out to present different point of views.

Low cost imitation damages innovation and intellecturalproperty

Shan-Zhai is just copycat, clone, and piracy, its core is plagiarism ;it is fake culture, and it is infringement of copyright.

The popularity of the Shan-Zhai culture may not be good forChinas ambition to become an innovation-oriented nation. As theShan-Zhai concept originated in the business world where theprotection of intellectual property rights is the key to innovation, atolerance of Shan-Zhai products, if not the Shan-Zhai culture ina broader perspective, sends a negative signal to enterprises thatdiligently develop competitive technologies and products. 3

For the long term, Shan-Zhai will damage Chinas innovation.

Ruins fair competition in the market

Shan-Zhai also can be driven by consumerism and market, whenconsumers find there are low price, affordable products that cansatisfy their needs for branded products, they will go for it. In this

case, Shan-Zhai robs the market share of original branded products,and this is bad for fair competition.

For long term, Shan-Zhai wont be able to preapre Chinesecompanies well for global market competition, it is just the otherway round, it will put Chinas economy in the situation of manufactures only, for ever.

Grass-roots Innovation and remix culture

The rise of the Shan-Zhai culture represents a grass-rootinnovation and spirit that has been becoming more cynical and evenrebellious.

Shan-Zhai products are not simply only copycats, it is mixture of copycatting with innovation. For example, almost all Shan-Zhaihandsets are equipped with long lasting battery, interchangabledouble sim card and double system; high PX digital camera, veryoften, better equipment than those branded-products thanks tomuch lower cost.It also represents remix culture and out-of-the-box thinking, this can

3 UPI Asia .com, http://www.upiasia.com/Politics/2009/01/20/the_unofficial_shanzhai_china/5501/


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be benefit for innovation.

Shows no confidence in China and Chinese culture

Shan-Zhai culture is against modernization and civilization, and it ispseudo culture. It is all about consumerism and materialism. And itis right abandonment of Chinas original culture, and make Chinabecome a nation full of fakes.

China and Chinese need make more efforts to develop originalinnovation instead of copycatting.

Chinese version of Garage Culture

Shan-Zhai is Chinese version of American garage Culture. The

garage has a special place in the hearts and minds of USentrepreneurs. Hewlett Packard famously started in the Thirties in agarage in what would later become Silicon Valley. Since then, thegarage has become almost a symbol for the idea that anyone whowants to set up a business should go ahead and try. Most of thecurrent giants of the IT industry started, if not in a garage, in a spareroom or in modest offices. Steve Jobs, Apple Computer's co-founder,is another example of a "garage" entrepreneur; and Microsoft hassimilar, humble origins. 4 And Google as well.

So, take Shan-Zhai as the rbight future for Chinas innovation.

In a word, the Shan-Zhai China is different from the China in itsofficial version, or even signifies a challenge to the official China. Of course, it still remains to be seen whether shanzhainization is justa passing controversial phenomenon or may lead to morefundamental changes in China. 5

4 < Guy Kawasaki: The garage culture comes to Britain>,http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-features/guy-kawasaki-

the-garage-culture-comes-to-britain-694099.html5 UPI Asia .com, http://www.upiasia.com/Politics/2009/01/20/the_unofficial_shanzhai_china/5501/

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