China is famous for the knock-off product, the locally made copy of a famous, often international, brand commodity. There is even a neologism, shanzhai, that is used to denote fake products. But now, it seems, fakery is expanding culturally beyond cheap manufactures and creating some anxiety, as evidenced in this China Daily article:
"Shanzhai" has become a culture of its
own, symbolizing anything that imitates something famous, the
Beijing-based Guangming Daily reported on Tuesday.
phenomenon has sparked a public controversy over "whether it is healthy
or sick being a copycat," according to the newspaper.
…
Tian Huiqun, a professor at the College
of Art and Communication of Beijing Normal University, said the concept
of "Shanzhai" started in the business world and thus the "Shanzhai"
culture has a commercial aspect.
She said that the "Shanzhai"
culture never copies classic things, only trendy products. In that
sense, she said, it's like a computer virus, multiplying without
meaning.
"If we were too tolerant of such 'culture' … the culture of [true] innovation would be even harder to develop," she said.
Though controversial, "Shanzhai" culture is becoming a widely accepted phenomenon.
…
The worry is that "shanzhai culture" will undermine the development of "real" or "authentic" "culture." You can tell by my use of scare quotes here that I am skeptical. I mean, what is "culture" anyway? When you think of imitation and sampling and "fair use" and the like, we can say that there is a certain amount of copying that goes on with any cultural production, however innovative and original it may appear.
But, as usual, I am drawn back to Chuang Tzu, who would reject the distinction of "real" and "fake" to begin with:
A sage inquires into realms beyond time and space, but never talks about them. A sage talks about realms within time and space, but never explains. In the Spring and Autumn Annals, where it tells about the ancient emperors, it says the sage explains but never divides. Hence in difference there's no difference, and in division there's no division. You may ask how this can be. The sage embraces it all. Everyone else divides things, and uses one to reveal the other. Therefore, I say: "Those who divide things cannot see." (27)
If we take this seriously, if "in difference there's no difference," then we shouldn't worry about the "real" v. the "fake." They are all human products, a part of their own time and place. None is more authentic or real than any other. There in nothing lost in the "fake" v. the "real:"
If you see the world in terms of difference, replied Confucius [this is Chuang Tzu speaking through the character of Confucius] there are liver and gallbladder, there are Ch'u lands and Yueh lands. But seen in terms of sameness, the ten thousand things are all one. If you understand this, you forget how eye and ear could love this and hate that. Then the mind wanders the accord of Integrity. And if you see the identity of things, you see there can be no loss…
Could we say: the real is the fake and the fake is the real?
The Useless Tree 
Leave a comment