Design and China

A few comments on product knock-offs made in PRC.

1. You can't stop it and the Central Gov't doesn't want to. There is too
much money to be made. If you go to the Silk Market (sells everything from
silk lingerie to cashmere sweaters to handmade rugs to indigenous crafts to
alleged Beanie Babies) on Jian Guo Men Dajie in Beijing (that's the silk
market for Westerners, the silk market for Russia and former Soviet states is
across the street from Behai Park -- the difference between the two is
whether your vendor may speak a little English/Russian AND the quality of the
goods, those in the Western market being of higher grade), you'll see
hundreds, if not thousands, of items that sport brand name labels and look
like the real thing. They're not. It doesn't matter what the vendor tells
you, every single item is a copy, and the person (at law, the definition of
"person" includes a corporation) who actually owns the design, trademarks,
and other intellectual property is being ripped off. Same goes for software,
DVDs, CDs, and the like.

2. Notwithstanding the foregoing, with respect to artwork it is a
centuries-old practice in China to copy the work of artists of previous
generations. Doing so is considered a way of paying homage to the original
artist AND improving the skills of the artist doing the copying. The Chinese
consider this an honest and valuable reproduction. This practice runs the
entire range of artistic media, from porcelain to scrolls to cloisonné to
cinnabar to embroideries to jade carvings. The Chinese also have perfected
ways to simulate the aging process on their honest reproductions. Caveat
Emptor with respect to Chinese "antiques."

3. While there may be a legal way to enforce intellectual property rights
(e.g., copyright, trademark) in PRC, there is no practical way to do so.
While they have some codified intellectual property law, it is rarely
enforced, and the outcome of any legal proceeding is predictable only to the
extent that the Chinese party to the action will prevail.

4. Western art is only starting to gain some respect in PRC -- remember
under Communist rule they were almost entirely closed off from other
countries for decades, and before that under several dynasties China did not
have open borders. They called themselves the "Middle Kingdom" because they
believed their country was the center of the civilized world. (To some
extent, they were right -- when Europe was eating food off of wood planks
using their fingers and maybe a knife, the Chinese were daintily using
chopsticks to eat off of porcelain dishes.) The non-Chinese art that is
given respect in PRC is classical Western art, ballet, opera, Old Master
paintings. Yet, Chinese youth are eager to embrace the latest Western trends
(for example, it is chic to smoke Western cigarettes, even though a pack may
cost a week's salary). If you can produce something that appeals to the
enormous Chinese youth market you should be able to make some money before
the Chinese themselves start copying your products.


Cheers --

Celeste

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