Shanzhai

For other uses, see Mountain Village.

Shanzhai (Chinese: 山寨; pinyin: shānzhài) (alternative spelling shanzai or shan zhai) refers to Chinese imitation and pirated brands and goods, particularly electronics. Literally "mountain village" or "mountain stronghold", the term refers to the mountain stockades of warlords or bandits, far away from official control. "Shanzhai" can also be stretched to refer to people who are lookalikes, low-quality or improved goods, as well as things done in parody. Template:Chinesetext

Origin

According to the "Modern Chinese Dictionary", ("现代汉语词典"), "Shanzhai" can stand for two meanings:

1. A fenced place in the forest.
2. Villages in the mountain that have stockade houses.

Historically, "shanzhai" is sometimes used as a metaphor to describe bandits who oppose and evade the corrupted authority to perform deeds they see as justified. One example of such bandits is the story of "Outlaws of the Marsh" (水浒传)

The use of "Shanzhai" to refer to imitation products comes from Cantonese slang, in which "shanzhai factory" means an ill-equipped, low-end and family-based factory. However, with the accumulation of profit, quite a few those factories invest a lot of money to improve their equipment. Some factories also get investment from someone other than family members. Nowadays, a significant portion of Shanzhai factories are no longer ill-equipped or family-based. And their products are no longer poor-quality. Yet they still can not escape the fate of no-brand(or fake brand), not-for-sale in top department stores with non-shanzhai phones. One of the motivations for going 'Shanzhai' is the difficult regulations the Chinese government has established to become an official cell phone manufacturer. So to avoid the hassles companies try to operate under the radar. They can avoid taxes that way and also avoid regulation.

Another account of the origin is that because imitation electronic appliance manufacturers are largely located in Shenzhen, thus wholesalers from other parts of China started calling their products "Shenzhen product". Yet gradually "Shenzhen product" became "Shanzhai product" because they sound similar when people speak mandarin Chinese with a Cantonese accent.

Shanzhai products

See also: counterfeit consumer goods

The use of "shanzhai" became popular with the outstanding sale performance of "shanzhai" cell phones. According to Gartner’s data, 1.15 billion cell phones were sold worldwide in 2007, and according to data provided by the Chinese government, 150 million "Shanzhai" cell phones were sold in the same year, thus making up more than one tenth of the global sales.

The market for "shanzhai" cell phones is not only in China, but also in the surrounding developing countries in Asia, and Third World countries in Africa and Latin America. The outstanding sales performance of "shanzhai" cell phones is usually attributed to their low price, multifunctional performance and imitations of trendy cell phone design. Although "shanzhai" companies do not use branding as a marketing strategy, they are known for their flexibility of design to meet specific market needs. For example, during Barack Obama’s 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign, "shanzhai" cell phone companies started selling "Obama" cell phones in Kenya, with the slogan "yes we can" and Obama’s name on the back of the cell phone. They also designed "Bird Nest" and "Fuwa" (福娃) cell phones in light of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Before the booming "shanzhai" cell phone industries, since the early 2000s, imitation electronic products like DVD players and MP3 players were already manufactured in the Pearl River Delta ("珠三角") area. Many "shanzhai" cell phone companies accumulated their capital in that process. After understanding that many buyers like lookalike phones, but didn't need blaring fake logos, many manufacturers adopted a practice of not using fraudulent logos, instead opting for a generically designed logo. So while an overseas buyer can easily find a lookalike phone, some sellers only sell those without the fake logo.

"Shanzhai" cellphones can be sold at very low prices compared to normal cellphones. On average, the imitations sell at retailers at about $US100-$US150, while production costs are about $US20.

"Shanzhai" cell phone factories are able to manufacture at a very low cost for two reasons. First, they do not buy cell phone manufacture licenses from the Chinese government, thus saving all the related costs. Second, the Taiwanese company Mediatek has developed a complete chain of core technology support for cell phones to sell at a much lower cost than the traditional suppliers of large cell phone companies like Nokia and Motorola.

Although there many fake garments, watches, bags, and shoes in China, they are not called "shanzhai" products, perhaps because these fake products came into existence earlier than fake cellphones and the newer use of the term "shanzhai". "Shanzhai" cell phones may stand out as the most successful and most often discussed "shanzhai" products, because cell phones strongly symbolize wealth in china, but they are much more affordable than other symbolic signs of wealth like cars and apartments.

Quite a few shanzhai cell phone companies tried to exploit the market by making shanzhai Netbooks, but these gained little market acceptance and sales.

"Shanzhai" electric cars, which run on lead-acid batteries and sell for as little as $US2000-$US3000, are being produced in the Shandong province.

Shanzhaiism

Shanzhaiism 山寨主義 is a philosophical term denoting a Chinese style of innovation with a peasant mind-set. Some observers think that Western style innovation cannot be developed in China. They say that, in the Web2.0 era, most innovative products and services are produced by the west, so it seems that China has no say and no way in this era.

Shanzhaiism has a long tradition. Products needed to be designed to suit peasants, which form most of China's population.

Shanzhaiism has an equivalent English term: tinker. Lacking a garage, they build products in villages in the mountains that have stockade houses. However, with shanzhaiism in mind, people can produce fake and pirate products in a massively organized way.

Shanzhaiism can be analyzed using a term coined by Jean-Paul Sartre: Bad faith. Fake and pirate products are produced. For example, there was once a so-called Fake-One Road ( 山寨一條街 ) in China.

This kind of phenomena is not confined to fake products. The mind set of shanzhaiism even extends to advertisements. For example, a shanzhai phone advertisement uses the president of the United States, Obama, to promote its shanzhai products.

Shanzhai culture

The frequent reference to shanzhai cell phones on internet and in traditional media made people start labeling low-cost imitation cultural activities as shanzhai as well. Some of the most well-known events include the Shanzhai National Spring Gala ("山寨春节联欢晚会"), Shanzhai Lecture Room ("山寨百家讲坛"), Shanzhai Olympic Torch Relay ("山寨奥运火炬传递"), and Shanzhai Nobel Prize ("山寨诺贝尔奖"). One thing these events have in common is that they all imitate high-end, popular yet authoritative events in which grass-roots power usually has no participating role.

While the purpose of the above mentioned shanzhai events is arguably just for the participants to have fun and to experience being the authority, other shanzhai cultural phenomena, like the shanzhai products, are profit-oriented. For example, some low-end performing agencies will hire people who look like pop stars to perform in rural areas, where people cannot afford to watch the performance of the actual stars. Thus shanzhai Jay Chou( "山寨周杰伦"), shanzhai Andy Lau("山寨刘德华") and shanzhai Faye Wong("山寨王菲") can be seen performing in many underdeveloped places in China.

Shanzhai movies are another profit-driven shanzhai phenomenon. These movies usually have low budgets, yet achieve commercial success by parodying, making fun of or borrowing elements from high-end Hollywood blockbuster movies. One of the first shanzhai movies is Ning Hao’(宁浩)s "Crazy Stone"(疯狂的石头). It imitates the multi-angle shooting, rapid cutting and stunts that are usually used in Hollywood action movies, yet it retains the grass-roots Chinese set up. With a 3 million Hongkong dollar budget, "Crazy Stone" achieved 22 million-box-office revenue. Following its success, shanzhai movies like "the Big Movie" series ("大电影"系列) and "No.2 in the World" ("天下第二") were made. Some also argue that Hollywood parody movies like "Scary Movie" are the true inspirational force behind shanzhai movies.

However, similar counterfeiting subcultures are not confined to China. Youtube memes that pose as coming feature film trailers, but are in fact a montage of past films could come from any part of the world, and would fit squarely into the definition of shanzhai.

Critical reception

The heated online debate about whether shanzhai should be encouraged or denounced is arguably due to Ni Ping (倪萍), a well-known CCTV host’s proposal during the "two conferences"(两会) this year. She proposed to establish relevant legislation that will eliminate the shanzhai phenomenon by arguing that the copycat culture associated with shanzhai will stifle genuine creativity and hamper awareness of property rights. While some agree with her, others point out that in order to give objective comment on the shanzhai phenomenon, one has to distinguish shanzhai products from pirated products and shanzhai culture from shanzhai products. They also argue that although many shanzhai culture events manifest themselves as copycat events, some also have true original elements. Western media like the Wall Street Journal and the New Yorker have reported about the shanzhai phenomenon and presented it as a form of rebellion and resistance to the mainstream culture.

See also

• China Shanzhai Television New Year's Gala
• ChiPod

Internet video

• In Chinese:大中華的"山寨"情結來自何方？

External links

• ""Analyzing Shanzhai Culture and Tech Gadgets", Shanzai.com
• "Copycat "Shanzhai" Culture Takes on Life of Its Own", Xinhua News Agency
• Must Read Monday: "Shan Zhai Ji" in Google.cn Most Searched List, from IP Dragon blog
• "Mountain village handsets storm market", China Economic Net
• "The Shanzhai Huaxiangji Question", from Timothy Lesle blog
• "First break all the rules, The Economist April 17th 2010
• "Cheap chips off the old block", China Daily
• "'Shanzhai': Faking It for Money or Fun?", China Radio International
• "In the Next Industrial Revolution, Atoms Are the New Bits" By Chris Anderson. January 25, 2010, Wired Magazine Feb 2010
• "In Chinese:163.com:《中国数万网民自发将山寨编入维基百科》专题策划
• The Fake-One Road in China ( 山寨一條街 )
• President Obama on Chinese shanzhai phone Ad
• a generically designed logo
• Shanzhai products in Mainland China but not in Hong Kong