copycat 山寨

As is indicated in the illustration given above, one well-known historical notability named Li Kui is being astonished by his another-self, who is standing in the opposite side, with a disgraceful note in his hand announcing “giving you the parallel experience as the original edition could pay”. So, paid for what? Definitely, he would be paid for his special reputation as a so-called “Copycat Big Star” or “Shanzhai Superstar” which is rampant in today’s China.

The trend of the variety of human culture is unchangeable even without the action delivered by human beings ascribing to the various individualities themselves, so is this round of culture revolution. The novelties emanating from the “Copycat Culture”--“Shanzhai Movie”, “Shanzhai Camera” and even “Shanzhai Celebration of Spring Festival” have brought a lot of entertainment to the public to some extent, but what we should never be blind to is their negative influence if they go to extremes hypothetically. Just as the exemplification demonstrated in the cartoon goes, “Shanzhai Star” is taking advantage of the fame or profitable value generating from the true superstar, sometimes this kind of behavior is a typical infringement to the intellectual property indeed, which we can never fail to recognize from TV programs or newspapers always.

Then, the question goes to another orientation, that is, whether or not should we admit the existence of “Copycat Culture” or to what extent could we make efforts to protect the rights of original authority? It goes with no denying that the engine of the development of a country is subject to the nation’s creative power, which needs the much strongest protection from no matter government or civilian to fight with any behavior ravaging this kind of ecological balance. Fortunately, the first good news has been coming in -- “a unique 15-digit code, the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), is being applied to China’s more than 200 types of registered mobile phones. The effort will combat “Shanzhai” mobile phones, or copycat phones, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said recently. ”