e-magazine
Quake Shocks Sichuan
Nation demonstrates progress in dealing with severe disaster
Current Issue
· Table of Contents
· Editor's Desk
· Previous Issues
· Subscribe to Mag
Subscribe Now >>
Expert's View
World
Nation
Business
Finance
Market Watch
Legal-Ease
North American Report
Forum
Government Documents
Expat's Eye
Health
Science/Technology
Lifestyle
Books
Movies
Backgrounders
Special
Photo Gallery
Blogs
Reader's Service
Learning with
'Beijing Review'
E-mail us
RSS Feeds
PDF Edition
Web-magazine
Reader's Letters
Make Beijing Review your homepage
Hot Links

cheap eyeglasses
Market Avenue
eBeijing

Forum
Forum
UPDATED: March 31, 2009 NO. 13 APR. 2, 2009
Is the Shanzhai Style of Parodying Popular Culture Innovation or Piracy?
Share

But a copycat is after all a copycat, which may easily infringe IPR regulations. Shanzhai thrives partly because of legal loopholes. A few deceitful companies invite celebrity look-alikes to shoot advertisements, at a fraction of the cost of what actual celebrities charge. These look-alikes not only have similar faces, but also behave like the celebrity to attract public attention.

Advocates of the shanzhai culture "value" it as a form of innovation, but creativity might in fact be destroyed if the shanzhai phenomenon begins to dominate the entertainment and other artistic markets.

Cultivating social creativity depends on the overall social atmosphere, in which innovation is highly valued. It is true that innovation always faces huge costs and risks of failure, and those who copy will always take shortcuts. But any form of copying will of course hamper the development of human creativity.

Shan Shibing (Changjiang Daily): Under the disguise of grassroots culture, shanzhai seeks illegal profits, avoiding charges of plagiarism, IPR violations and tax evasion. Meanwhile, some shanzhai practitioners blame expensive original copyright costs for the tough regulations and difficult market access.

The rampant shanzhai culture, characterized by poor imitation and distorted taste, degrades the qualities of contemporary arts and modern civilization. Even if market monopoly and IPR barriers, as well as an unfair global pricing system, add extra costs to general consumers, it is impossible for shanzhai to replace the original in the long term. And the prosperity of the shanzhai culture, which represents fading artistic creativity and lost cultural tastes amid social transformation, can never last long. It can only disturb the market order.

Dong Fanger (www.chinanews.com.cn): With easy access to the Internet, shanzhai entertains the public through parodying popular culture. Despite its popularity, most shanzhai offerings are fake. This lowers public tastes and disgraces the intrinsic spirit of Chinese culture.

But varying from popular culture, the existence of copycat shanzhai will stimulate cultural reform and innovation via diversification. As the period of social transition reaches completion, however, popular culture will return to its rightful place and the so-called shanzhai culture, a poor imitation short of creativity, will subsequently decline.

   Previous   1   2  



 
Top Story
-Too Much Money?
-Special Coverage: Economic Shift Underway
-Quake Shocks Sichuan
-Special Coverage: 7.0-Magnitude Earthquake Hits Sichuan
-A New Crop of Farmers
Most Popular
在线翻译
About BEIJINGREVIEW | About beijingreview.com | Rss Feeds | Contact us | Advertising | Subscribe & Service | Make Beijing Review your homepage
Copyright Beijing Review All right reserved