Member-only story
Shanzhai: the Chinese Copycats, Robin Hood-style
If you want to truly learn something about Chinese people, study their language.
In fact, studying Chinese language explains a great deal of the non-sayings about their culture. Anyone studying in China is a Xuesheng, which means student, in which the first ideogram, xue, means “to learn”. The same ideogram however also means “to imitate”, because if you think about it the authentic way of learning, especially in the most tender age is by imitation.
It is therefore clear that the concept of imitation in China does not have such a negative meaning as in the West. Proof is that the term “counterfeit”, Fang Zao, was created by Westerners, and did not exist previously in Mandarin.
Let me tell you a story about that: It caused a great sensation around the 1970s, when two vases belonging to the Qing dynasty were exhibited in a famous shopping center in Paris. After a while, it turned out that in reality the vases were not original, but perfect copies. For the French it was unbearable, and an offense, while the Chinese were appalled, because for them it was not a question of forgery, but rather of a gift of a manual copy in which the artistic…
