Chinese Counterfeits, Fakes & Knock-Offs

[GeneChing]

These are so awesome. Next time I'm in China, I'd love to visit one.

INSIDE CHINA'S INCREDIBLE 'FAKE CITIES': WHY EVEN XI JINPING COULDN'T STOP REPLICAS OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST LANDMARKS
BY CHRISTINA ZHAO ON 7/12/18 AT 6:00 AM

In China’s eastern coastal province of Zhejiang sits a 354-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower surrounded by 12 square miles of Parisian-style buildings, fountains and landscaping. Although the pastiche town is more than 5,000 miles away from Paris, it was designed to capture France’s essence—and to ensure that those who visited it would no longer need to see the real thing.

Tianducheng—also known as “Sky City”—opened its doors to the public as a luxury housing estate in 2007 with capacity to accommodate more than 10,000 residents. But it remained largely unoccupied as Chinese citizens’ rejected its bizarre theme and undesirable location.

In 2013, a video surfaced showing the town’s long-empty boulevards and Eiffel Tower overgrown with weeds. The footage led to several reports deeming the design a failure and the city a “post-apocalyptic ghost town.”

But Sky City isn’t the only Chinese town that carries an uncanny familiarity to somewhere else entirely. As the Chinese economy began to boom in the 1990s, duplicating Western architecture became a fad, as citizens increasingly wanted homes that conveyed success and wealth on a global scale. Starting in the early 2000s, “fake” cities and knockoff global cultural landmarks have sprung up in all corners of the country.


A street cleaner crosses the street in front of a replica of the Eiffel Tower in Tianducheng, a luxury real estate development located in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang province. The replica Eiffel Tower rises to 108 meters (354 feet) in the heart of the city's plush Tianducheng development.
GETTY IMAGES

In Hebei, two hours north of Beijing, lies a version of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, eerily similar to the American West. The resort town—where wealthy Chinese city inhabitants go for vacation—has a town square, cowboys, a church and Route 66 running through it. In 2001, the Shanghai Planning Commission embarked on the “One City, Nine Towns” project, which aimed to create multiple-themed satellite villages in a bid to alleviate the inner city’s growing population.

Thames Town in the Songjiang District looks like a caricature of London's boroughs. Its rowhouse streets are paved with cobblestone, and have red telephone booths, cathedrals, guards dressed in British uniforms and a statue of Winston Churchill. Only an hour’s drive east, in Suzhou, is a replica of Tower Bridge, which boasts four towers instead of two.


A bridge modeled on London's Tower Bridge, in Suzhou, in China's eastern Jiangsu province. The bridge features four 40-meter-tall towers instead of two, but otherwise uses many design elements from the London original.
GETTY

Anthony MacKay, the masterplanner and architect of Thames Town, told Newsweek that he was disappointed with the finished product, calling the entire village “comical.”

“It’s not how I intended Thames Town to be. It’s doesn’t look right. I’m angry about it,” he said. “They came [to England], took photographs of lots of buildings, went back and copied them… It’s like a collection of facades, there’s no depth to the buildings.”

Thames Town and the other eight cities modeled after the West’s greatest architectural hits function both as housing estates and tourist attractions for those who can’t make it to the real thing.

Chinese families who can’t afford to travel to the Parthenon in Greece can instead visit Lanzhou in Gansu to see a copy. Other famous landmarks have also been erected all across China, including Washington D.C.’s White House, Rome’s Colosseum and Egypt’s Great Sphinx of Giza.


Workers build a pavement outside a replica of the Roman Colosseum at the Fisherman's Wharf, a locally invested entertainment park with a casino in Macau.
REUTERS

In recent years, Beijing’s attempts to limit the spread of these “weird, oversized and xenocentric” architectures have been in vain. In 2016, China’s State Council released a document that required all new buildings to be “suitable, economic, green and pleasing to the eye.”

President Xi Jinping, who initially called for the end of “weird architecture,” spearheaded the directive after the rapid expansion of Chinese cities and increased urbanization resulted in a surge of strange buildings, including doughnut-shaped skyscrapers and a phallic-shaped high rise.

Although the order was not aimed specifically at pastiche buildings, they were included in the directive. "Fine art works should be like sunshine from the blue sky and the breeze in spring that will inspire minds, warm hearts, cultivate taste and clean up undesirable work styles," Xi said. The order also banned gated communities and nonpermitted developments.


A Chinese future bride has her friends playing with her dress during a pre-wedding photo shoot in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris, August 28, 2015.
REUTERS

Xi’s criticism of excessive architecture has since influenced local governments’ decisions when granting consent for buildings. “Generally speaking, local governments now tend to approve more conservative designs," Feng Guochuan, a Shenzhen architect told the The New York Times.

Despite the nationwide crackdown, William Shakespeare’s historic hometown Stratford-upon-Avon is currently still being recreated as part of a new tourist town called San Weng, in Jiangxi province.

“China’s rising middle and upper class are exploring the world, but its still expensive and difficult. For many Chinese citizens, a visit to the Paris replica in Hangzhou is the next best thing,” Bianca Bosker, an American journalist and novelist, told Newsweek.

“These are not just theme parks, some of them do double duty as both home and tourist attraction, which is not so different from the real Paris or Rome.”


A Chinese worker walks past a replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Shanghai.
REUTERS

In 2013, Bosker published the book Original Copies: Architectural Mimicry in Contemporary China, which presented the first definitive chronicle of Chinese “duplitecture,” a word she coined to describe the phenomenon. While researching the book, Bosker traveled to multiple locations in China in a bid to better understand why the world’s most populous country was appropriating historical Western architecture.

“For those people who haven’t been to Sky City, when you step foot in these duplitecture communities, it feels as though you’ve been transported thousands of miles away,” Bosker recalled. “The smell of the air changes. There’s such a close attention to detail.”


A government building in Mentougou district of Beijing. Local residents said the new building resembles Moscow's Kremlin.
REUTERS

Although Tianducheng may look like Paris, the city is still culturally Chinese and isn’t as well maintained as the French capital. “French-style” bakeries sell taro, salted egg and red bean treats rather than Parisian baguettes, the fountains are dry, and smog clouds the air.

"I think [the city is] a little strange. I live here because it's cheap. In Hangzhou, this is very, very cheap," Rachel Ni, a resident, told ABC News in 2016. "The environment is good, especially for the baby."

While some homebuyers found Tianducheng too weird and inconvenient, other towns located closer to main cities have sold much better. According to a Nightline report, one highly sought-after home in China’s Jackson Hole sold for $2 million because of its close proximity to Beijing.


Tourists visit a full-size replica of the Great Sphinx in Chuzhou, Anhui province. The replica was built as part of the World Cultural Heritage Expo Park.
GETTY

In recent years, as more people moved into Tianducheng, the city has been transformed from a ghost town to a normal place where people live. Nowadays, most of the parking spots are occupied, couples stroll its streets in the evenings, and beneath the faux Eiffel tower, tourists and wedding parties can be seen posing for photos throughout the day, every day.

After spending years trying to figure out the reason behind China’s obsession with duplitecture, Bosker and MacKay have only ended up with more questions.

“Maybe it doesn’t actually matter that much because they are so clearly a pastiche it’s almost comical,” MacKay said. “If the people are happy to go there and walk around and have a drink. That’s OK.”


A view of the government office building in Yingquan district in Fuyang, Anhui province, east China. At a cost of $4.28M, the "Western-style" building is called the "White House" by locals. Its construction was made possible through the demolition of a local school and the repossession of farming land.
GETTY

[GeneChing]

[GeneChing]

This is really a tad off topic.

China officials 'faked water tests with bottled water'
2 hours ago


GETTY CREATIVE
The officials reportedly faked the data by using bottled water instead of river water

China is sending investigators to Hunan province after local officials were accused of faking data at a water monitoring station, state media report.

The officials are alleged to have placed sensors intended to measure the water quality of Lujiang River inside bottles of mineral water instead.

The river, in Zhuzhou, is badly polluted by sewage water, reports say.

There is widespread suspicion that some local officials and companies in China ignore environmental policies.

The environment ministry says it is investigating in Zhuzhou and "will seriously punish" any "violations".

One monitoring sensor was even placed in a cup of tea instead of the Lujiang River, Xinhua news agency says.

Water monitoring currently takes place at 2,050 sites in the country, China Daily reports.

The Chinese government has vowed to improve its efforts to monitor and combat pollution - but there continues to be concern about air and water quality in China.

In 2016, one government report said more than 80% of rural wells in the north-east contained water unsafe for drinking.

Meanwhile, a separate 2017 government survey found more than 13,000 companies in China failed to meet environmental standards.

[GeneChing]

LOOK: Fake Angkor Wat opens in Nanning
You can now experience the beauty of Angkor Wat without ever leaving China
by Alex Linder September 18, 2018



Always wanted to see the world famous temple complex at Angkor Wat, but don’t feel like going all the way to Cambodia? Don’t worry, China has you covered.

Recently, a new tourist attraction opened in the southern city of Nanning which mimics the iconic world heritage site, featuring Angkor Wat-like architecture, carvings, and statues. Reportedly, the design team made trips to the actual Angkor Wat to make sure to get all of the details right.

China is infamous for its reproductions of some of the world’s most famous sites, boasting entire theme parks where you can travel the globe without ever leaving China. Occasionally, these imitations anger the original owner, resulting in Sphinxes being beheaded.

[Images via Imagine China / Cambodia News English]

And I thought Vegas was silly.

[GeneChing]

...and it's a bad time to be in the martial arts business. We've already felt negative impact of this looming trade war. At Kung Fu Tai Chi, we just have to eat bitter (glad I took my vacation before this hit). At Tiger Claw, they are absorbing as much as possible so as not to pass the rising cost of goods to their clients. Hopefully, this doesn't go on for too long.

Trump’s trade war brings unexpected boom for knockoff designer bags from China


People shop at fake designer handbag stalls in Beijing's famous Silk Alley market on June 11, 2006. (PETER PARKS/AFP/Getty Images)
By Danielle Paquette
September 19

BEIJING — When President Trump threatens China with more tariffs, Lulu thinks of her commission checks and smiles.

It’s a good time to work in the fake-handbag business.

The shadow industry — already a big moneymaker — stands to reap another potential windfall from the trade war, which escalated this week.

Knockoffs of famous brands — Coach, Kate Spade and others — are mostly made in China and arrive at U.S. shores through clandestine channels built to dodge authorities. The authentic purses and their components, also made in China, are shipped through official routes and would face Trump’s proposed new duties of 10 percent effective next Monday.

This all stacks up in favor of the counterfeit labels at every step of their illicit journey: from factory floors in China to street vendors in cities worldwide.

In the game of "Trade Wars," perhaps the winning move is not to play. (Daron Taylor, Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

The 32-year-old copycat merchant, who agreed to an interview using only her nickname to stay under the radar, said the goods come from a site in the southern province of Guangdong. “No middleman” and no taxes, she said.

If prices for brand-name bags swell on international markets because of tariffs, Lulu predicts it can only be good for Chinese knockoffs. “More people will think: ‘Why not just buy a bag here?’ ” she said.

The next wave of tariffs targets another $200 billion in Chinese imports, including handbags, leather and silk.

This prospect alarms both American fashion designers and global authorities, because U.S. firms already lose billions each year to counterfeiters. Officials also link knockoff sales to organized crime groups that exploit child labor.

“A tariff on a genuine bag is a subsidy for a fake,” said Susan Scafidi, a New York fashion lawyer focused on intellectual property.

The global counterfeit trade for all items, from purses to electronics to software, is worth $461 billion, according to the latest estimate by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. That is more than the global drug trade.

And more than 85 percent of the handbag replicas originate in mainland China and Hong Kong. A fifth of counterfeit busts worldwide involve American brands.

Middle-income shoppers are particularly vulnerable to cost increases, analysts warn, and could swing to the faux side for their splurges at a time when finding Chinese fakes on the Internet has never been easier.

The tags on Lulu’s purses in Beijing say 1,280 yuan, or about $186. She gets a cut of the sales but would not say how much. Another merchant, who declined to provide her name, told The Washington Post that she earns between $730 and $1,200 per month, depending on the appetite for knockoffs.

That’s good money in a country where workers on average earn $8,250 annually, according to World Bank data.

Most customers won’t spend more than $150 on a knockoff purse, Lulu said.

That includes Lauren Everett, a 29-year-old flight attendant from London, who visited the Silk Market on a recent afternoon to browse the deals.

Normally, she wouldn’t seek out fakes, but if someone there is hawking a near-identical copy of a French tote she likes, and it’s cheaper than the $125 version in stores, “you may as well,” she said.

About 7,000 miles away, New York handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff became the most prominent face of the fashion industry’s rising concerns last month.

She testified to the U.S. trade representative in a written statement that Trump’s tariffs would hurt her namesake brand, known for bags with cross-body straps that start at about $150.

New duties on handbags, Minkoff wrote, “will only ennoble the bad actors in the Chinese economy who pose a genuine threat to our business via bad faith registrations of our recognized trademarks.”

Research from economist Vincent Wenxiong Yao supports Minkoff’s fear. When the cost of legitimate goods rises, so does demand for counterfeits, Yao wrote, sparking a “substitution effect.”

Soaring prices are inevitable if businesses have to absorb higher border taxes in the widening trade battle, said Brent Cleaveland, executive director of the Fashion Jewelry and Accessories Trade Association, which represents 225 U.S. companies.

“Any disruption of the supply chain will obviously increase costs, challenge compliance and promote discord,” Cleaveland said.

Warnings from industry groups came weeks after authorities made their largest seizure of fakes at the Port of Newark.

In late August, the federal government announced that it had confiscated enough knockoffs from China imitating Coach, Michael Kors and Tory Burch, among other fashion brands, to stuff 22 shipping containers. Authorities estimated that the load represented a loss to U.S. companies of nearly $500,000.

Beijing has pledged over the years to crack down on the fakers, slamming online retail giants such as Alibaba for failing to eradicate replicas on its platforms.

Officials also routinely inspect brick-and-mortar stores. But, as the economist Yao points out in his research, they may not take the job too seriously because local vendors rely on the income. Often, he wrote, sellers seem to know precisely when to hide their merchandise.

Such appeared to be the case this month at Beijing’s Pearl Market, another counterfeit hot spot.

As hundreds of African delegates visited the capital in September for an economic summit, merchants told The Post that security had tightened so they did not have their goods on display.

Instead, they led buyers to unmarked apartments down a nearby alley and showed them closets full of knockoff Gucci, Prada, Michael Kors and Louis Vuitton handbags — also from Guangdong, the manufacturing hotbed in the south.

Merchants encouraged foreign customers to share their social media usernames with friends back home. They were happy to take international orders.

Luna Lin contributed to this report.

[GeneChing]

Wait...what?

China to launch artificial 'moon' into orbit to light up city
Joseph Archer
,The Telegraph•October 17, 2018


Officials have intentions to have a satellite in orbit by 2020 that will be able to reflect light from the Sun onto its streets at night - Pacific Press / Barcroft Media

China is to launch a fake "moon" into space that it hopes will illuminate one of the country's biggest cities.

Officials in Chengdu, a city of 14 million people in China's southwestern province of Sichuan, announced plans to place a satellite in orbit by 2020 capable of reflecting sunlight onto its streets at night, claiming it will be bright enough to entirely replace street lights.

The satellite would use a reflective coating to direct light to illuminate an area on earth of up to 50 square miles, according to Wu Chunfeng, chairman of the city’s Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute.

The launch follows a similar project in 1999 when Russian researchers planned to use orbiting mirrors to light up cities in Siberia, hoping it would be a cheaper alternative to electric lighting.

The scheme developed by Russia used a device called Znamya 2. It was equipped with a 25-metre mirror to illuminate a three-mile wide patch of land. During its first orbit the craft was destroyed following a collision in space. The scheme was abandoned.

In remarks first reported by CIFNews, Mr Chunfeng told a science event in Chengdu that the artificial moon, which has been undergoing testing for several years, will produce at least eight times more light than the real moon.

He did not say how much the project would cost.

Scientists have warned the device could disturb wildlife and disrupt systems that observe the earth’s atmosphere.

However, Kang Weimin, a director at the School of Aerospace at the Harbin Institute of Technology, told CIFNews that the satellite will produce a dusk-like glow, meaning it will not affect animals.

THREADS:
Chinese Counterfeits, Fakes & Knock-Offs
That's no moon...it's a space station!

[GeneChing]

NOVEMBER 7, 2018 4:39PM PT
Kris Wu’s iTunes U.S. Sales Acquired ‘Fraudulently’ and Won’t Count Toward Charts
Fans of fellow Universal Music artist Ariana Grande, as well as industry insiders, contend that the Chinese artist gamed the system.
By SHIRLEY HALPERIN
Executive Editor, Music
@shirleyhalperin


CREDIT: SHUTTERSTOCK

UPDATED: A strange thing happened on the iTunes U.S. store on Monday (Nov. 5) when Kris Wu, a Chinese-Canadian actor and artist, practically swept the Top 10 songs chart. For much of the day and into the night, the only non-Wu track in the top five was Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next,” which had premiered amid much fanfare just ahead of “Saturday Night Live” on Nov. 3. For an artist who was accustomed to topping the chart with every new release, it was a bitter pill for Grande to swallow. At the same time, it seemed curious that Wu, whose album “Antares” had yet to be released in China, would have such momentum on a U.S. chart. While he’s a household name in Asia, in America he’s comparably an unknown. Also, Wu’s tracks weren’t streaming in significant numbers which was reason enough for some industry insiders to cry foul.

Indeed, according to a well-placed insider, Wu’s album sales were acquired fraudulently and will not count toward the iTunes sales chart reported to Nielsen and disseminated by Billboard. The determination was made to “suppress those sales numbers” on Wednesday afternoon following patterns of high-volume purchases on iTunes, first of the explicit version of “Antares,” and then of the clean version.

In a statement early Thursday, a rep for Nielsen (which publishes chart data in Billboard) said the data is under review: “Billboard and Nielsen Music are working closely to ensure both the accuracy and legitimacy of the sales volumes being reported for Kris Wu this week. We capture data from a number of sources including streaming, radio and retail, allowing us to validate the accuracy of sales and playback information as well as identify anomalies. As we do with all reports when irregularities are noticed during the normal weekly validation process, we work closely with our partners to address the issue, which may result in excluding any irregular or excessive sales patterns, prior to charts being finalized.”

So how did this happen? According to insiders, there were several factors that contributed to Wu’s showing. First, his album hadn’t yet been released in China where the label purportedly purposely held it back so it could come out on Wu’s birthday, Tuesday, Nov. 6. Typically, albums come out on Fridays worldwide, as per the global release date change instituted in 2015. But in the U.S., it was already available on iTunes, released by Interscope Records on Nov. 2. What transpired was a classic supply and demand scenario where “supply in the U.S. met the demand in China.”

This theory was supported by Ariana Grande manager Scooter Braun in an Instagram post early Thursday, relating a conversation he’d had with Wu. “Last night we had an opportunity to connect and talk and show respect,” he wrote. “It was explained to he and I last night that because his release was held back in China for his birthday his fans went and got the music any way they could and that was US Itunes. Once the release in China took place the fans had their access. He has never been removed from the charts on iTunes. That is false. Those were real people from the US and international community and not bots like many have rumored. I have never wished anything bad for Kris nor any other artist and those saying otherwise are wrong. Any fans of anyone I manage who are using this opportunity to spread any sort of division or racism are dead wrong and I won’t stand for it.”

A comment from Universal Music China (to which Wu is signed, and with Interscope as the U.S. licensee) was less clear in translation, but according to the site SixTone it claims the chart numbers were “genuine and effective.”

scooterbraun
Verified
•

27,256 likes
scooterbraun Over the past few days I have become aware of an artist named @kriswu. Last night we had an opportunity to connect and talk and show respect. We learned of eachother since many rumors have come out about both us in connection to his newest release. Kris is a great artist who on a global scale is a star. It was explained to he and I last night that because his release was held back in China for his birthday his fans went and got the music any way they could and that was US Itunes. Once the release in China took place the fans had their access. He has never been removed from the charts on iTunes. That is false. I have never wished anything bad for Kris nor any other artist and those saying otherwise are wrong. Any fans of anyone I manage who are using this opportunity to spread any sort of division or racism are dead wrong and I won’t stand for it. The music community is international and no longer held by borders. Kris happy birthday and you showed yourself to be a global star. Glad we got to connect and speak and keep your head held high. This is just the first of many achievements for you. And for those using my name for false rumors now you know exactly where I stand. Keep it positive.

While it’s not hard to see how fans from China, with a population of more than 1.3 billion, could impact a chart so swiftly, it is less clear how those living in the famously curtained country, which doesn’t even have access to Twitter, able to make a purchase on a U.S. platform. Another source surmises that there was “a plan to game the U.S. system to gain traction in the U.S. and mobilize a new audience.”


CREDIT: THE WHALE REPORT

Still other insiders contend that Chinese fans were able to use VPN manipulation to access the U.S. iTunes store, noting that Spotify is not available in China, so it stands to reason that Wu devotees would resort to any method possible to support their favorite artist (Wu is also a graduate of boy band EXO), and that there are indeed that many diehards in the U.S. Still, the integrity of the iTunes store comes into question if such a VPN breach occurred. And an added anomaly: as soon as Wu’s album was available in China, his rank swiftly slipped on the U.S. iTunes chart to position No. 90. Where did all those U.S. fans go? (Apple declined comment.)

Then there’s the issue of whether Wu’s sales would be counted towards Nielsen Music metrics, which power the Billboard charts. If “bots” weren’t a factor, an argument could be made for Wu to chart, or at least that it’s not Universal Music Group’s problem, which may still be the case in terms of keeping the money. But the explicit determination was made that sales acquired in such a matter are considered “fraud.” Spotify is not unsusceptible to these issues either, as Variety reported in August.

UMG signed Wu earlier this year to release his music internationally, excluding Japan and Korea, through a partnership between Universal Music China, Interscope Geffen A&M in the U.S. and Island Records in the U.K., as well as UMG’s operations in more than 60 countries. UMG Greater China is headed by chairman/CEO Sunny Chang.

All of this is not to say that Wu isn’t deserving of success. He enlisted some of the top hitmakers of the day for the album — the song “November Rain,” for example, features production by Murda Beatz (Drake, Migos), while other tracks credit Frank Dukes — and he’s already notched an iTunes No. 1 in the past, “Deserve,” featuring Travis Scott, which has racked up more than a billion streams (and is also on the track list for “Antares”). He’s also starred in such films as “XxX: Return of Xander Cage,” “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets,” and “Journey to the West: The Demons Strike Back,” in addition to recently being named the face of Louis Vuitton.

Ariana Grande tried to take things in stride — she did, after all, have a No. 1 on streaming service Apple Music, the first pop artist to top that tally, and “Thank u, next” currently sits comfortably atop the iTunes single chart — but her fans didn’t hold back, launching the hashtag #kriswho and pointing to Wu fan groups which had detailed instructions on how purchase individual tracks or download the album and make it count. Making matters a bit more awkward, both Grande and Wu are signed to UMG labels (Grande to Republic Records).

Of course, we all know Kris Wu.

[GeneChing]

Column by Nicolas Groffman
Top Gun was twice remade in Chinese, why didn’t anybody notice? Clue: PLA
Chinese fans loved the original so much there just had to be a remake. But, writes Nicolas Groffman, that’s when the military got involved
PUBLISHED : Monday, 29 October, 2018, 8:02am
UPDATED : Thursday, 01 November, 2018, 4:41pm
Nicolas Groffman



In the summer of 1986, my friend Charles and I saw a trailer for the most amazing film conceivable, with F-14s landing on carriers.

They crashed down amid the steam in super-modern all-grey livery. The film came out a few months later and only those with large reserves of intellectual snobbery failed to enjoy it. It was Top Gun.

In mainland China and Hong Kong, the movie was called “Zhuang Zhi Ling Yun”, a good metaphorical name implying reaching for the clouds. It is a perennial favourite in China, and many know the movie scene by scene, as became apparent when in January 2011 the PLA Air Force released footage of aerial combat exercises, including a scene of a successful attack on a drone.

Except it wasn’t.

It was a clip from Top Gun. Chinese internet users spotted this immediately, exposed the trick, and humiliated the air force, which removed the clip from its website and presumably told off whoever was responsible – but the seed of an idea had been planted. China must have its own Top Gun!

The 2017 film Kong Tian Lie, or Sky Hunters, which stars Fan Bingbing and her boyfriend Li Chen, was billed as being the first movie to have the full cooperation of the PLA Air Force. It was not.

That honour goes to Jian Shi Chu Ji, or Sky Fighters, released in March 2011. It did not get good reviews from ordinary cinema-goers, because it managed to strike that special blend of cliché and tedium that robs even potentially exciting situations of all passion.

You would think that filming J-10s in dogfight sequences would inevitably be thrilling.

But all suspense is removed; no one is ever in danger for more than 30 seconds, and scenes of the inquiries into dangerous flying last longer than the scenes of the actual dangerous flying.


Top Gun is a perennial favourite for many Chinese film-goers. Photo: Alamy

Sky Fighters does however have moments of comedy. At a press conference for obsequious civilians, the film’s hero, General Yue, answers a foreign woman who throws him a tricky question. “You are the bravest pilot I have ever seen,” she says, “but what do you think of George W Bush?” to which Yue replies, “I’m better than him, because he can’t speak Chinese, and I’m a better pilot.”

He also explains to another foreign reporter that “war is best avoided, but if it comes, it is better to be prepared”. The reporter is at first surprised but then nods as he slowly comprehends these sage words.

Other reviews of this film have noted its scene-by-scene mimicking of Top Gun – granted it has a motorbike-along-the-runway scene, and it has the two male protagonists at odds who are reconciled at the end.

But it’s definitely a movie in its own right – and one which is old-fashioned and uncool. It even has a scene where the general’s wife sneaks up behind her husband and covers his eyes to make him guess who she is, while he pretends to run through a list of other girls. What comedy!

Chinese people of a certain age will remember a popular song from 1991 with lyrics describing a similarly annoying event and a man who guesses Mary, Sunny, and Ivory.

Come on, air force guy who wrote the script for the 2011 movie. You had 20 years to think of something new. Even the bar scene seems struck in the 1990s, with people ordering coffee as if it’s a new invention, and there are fruit bowls holding cherry tomatoes and bananas. Very KTV.

Weirder still, when they move to a new base, the commander hands over a bag of “feminine products” to the two female officers. I’m not making this up. The women are delighted, of course.


The 2011 Chinese film Sky Fighters flopped. Photo: Handout

Cut to 2017 and the much flashier Sky Hunters. The heroes are too cool even to wear proper air force uniforms, having been issued with sunglasses and leather jackets. In the six years that have gone by, Chinese studios have learnt to flash cash and get Hollywood bigshots on board.

They have Hans Zimmer for the score; they have the guy who did the computer-generated effects for Game of Thrones; they have lots of foreign extras.

Sadly, however, the PLA, once again, insisted on controlling the script and the production. And once again, they drained it of any real suspense or innovation.

At one point the movie makers seem to realise this – when a Chinese fighter inverts above a US spyplane, the pilot yells, “I think I’ve see this in a movie somewhere.”

Of course he has – it’s from the first five minutes of Top Gun.


China’s J-10 fighters take a starring role in both films. Photo: Handout

But instead of having the foreigners spout nonsense as in the 2011 film, the Americans say things that sound Hollywood-like – “He’s cute. Cuter than you,” says the female spy-plane crew member to her male colleague, referring to the hero Li Chen.

And – I’m not sure if this is meant to be a joke – Islamic State-style terrorists have one member who roars pointlessly when angry and looks like a comedy version of BA Baracus.

Fan Bingbing doesn’t have much to do in this movie, but she has a key role in its most idiotic scene.

The hero is thought to have perished, and so she stands alone on the runway – until … oh, why are there hundreds of people running behind her with happy faces? What have they seen? She turns and sees his smoking damaged plane is limping towards them through the grey sky.

Her expression turns to joy as she realises he has survived. Meanwhile we, the audience, wonder why so many people are celebrating before he has even landed.

And indeed how can he land with the entire cast – and extras – cheering and dancing jigs in his flight path?


Li Chen starred in Sky Hunters, but the air force insisted on having the final say. Photo: Handout

The film has its good points. It’s interesting to see all those new Chinese aircraft: the Y-20 airlifter, the J-20 stealth fighter and the H-6, as well as the J-10s and J-11s that we saw in Sky Fighters.

Li Jiahang is excellent as the dopey pilot who is taken hostage. And Tomer Oz, an Israeli actor sporting an Islamic-looking beard, is weirdly menacing as a Central Asian air force veteran who becomes a terrorist boss. And there’s a parachuting scene with a German shepherd dog which is just plain fun.

Chinese film-goers, not known for their polite reviews, generally panned the film.

It got two stars on Douban.com. About the most positive review was titled, “Is Sky Hunter so awful that you can’t watch it?” concluding generously that it wasn’t.

People were particularly rude about Fan Bingbing, of course, but it’s hardly her fault the movie was no good.

No one was bold enough to blame the military for meddling in the movie, but that is probably why Top Gun succeeded back in 1986 while Sky Hunter fails.

In 1986, the US Navy supported the movie studio but was smart enough not to tamper with the story and the production.

In China, the military made the movie, and expected everyone else to do as they were told. The result was what you’d expect from the military: discipline, technology, and no freedom of expression. Perhaps the 2023 version, which I predict will be called Sky Warriors, will be better.

Nicolas Groffman, who practised law in Beijing and Shanghai, is a partner at law firm Harrison Clark Rickerbys in London

THREADS
Where in the world is Fan Bingbing?
Chinese Counterfeits, Fakes & Knock-Offs

[GeneChing]

Chinese Copycats That Will Make You Angry
YESTERDAY BY JAY TRAUGOTT CAR CULTURE
They're worse than you think.

It was only a matter of time before a Chinese automaker squeezed its way into the highly lucrative American car market. Many have tried and failed, but now that Zotye has announced it’ll launch an SUV in the US for 2020, we figured it was time to highlight Chinese-built cars and SUVs that shamelessly copied vehicles (with help from the government) from the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Jeep, Bentley, Ferrari, and Porsche.

While some Chinese customers may have been fooled by these blatant design thefts, Westerners are not. So we dug through the archives to find some Chinese vehicles whose designs are the most blatant rip-offs. Before you ask, China passed a law to protect its domestic carmakers by making it nearly impossible for a Western automaker to prove to a Chinese court its patented designs were stolen. So don't expect these ripoffs to stop anytime soon.



Eagle Came
Let's begin with the worst of them all. Translated as the 'Eagle Came' (presumably, it sounds better in Chinese), where to begin with this one? Well, the Eagle Came debuted back in 2015 attempting the impossible: fusing a Ferrari with a Porsche. Its headlights and grille are very Ferrari California T-like while the rest of is all Porsche 718 Cayman. Even the badge looks like it was ripped off a Porsche.

Built by Suzhou, the Eagle Came is also all-electric, capable of a 0-62 mph of 4.8 seconds. Top speed, however, is only 75 mph.



BYD S8
Is this just a rebadged Mercedes-Benz CLK-Class convertible? Nope, it’s the BYD S8. BYD stands for ‘Build Your Dreams,’ or, in this case, someone else’s. The S8 first premiered in concept form back in 2006 at the Shanghai Motor Show and went into production for 2009. Fortunately, it lasted for just a single model year. That’s because only seven examples were sold.

Unlike the Mercedes, the S8 was front-wheel-drive and was powered a 140-hp 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine instead of a V6. It also featured a folding metal roof, just like the Mercedes SLK. Now, here’s the ironic bit: BYD not so long ago signed a technical agreement with Mercedes so it's safe to assume that all is forgiven for this blatant ripoff.



BAIC BJ80
This is the BAIC BJ80, a 4WD luxury SUV that looks suspiciously like the iconic G-Class. On the bright side, it costs an awful lot less, starting off at 288,000 yuan, or about $43,000. Launched for 2016, the BJ80 is powered by a choice of turbo diesel inline-fours linked to either a six-speed manual or automatic. At many angles, it’s a dead ringer for the G-Class, and yet, there was no lawsuit by Mercedes as far as we know.

Like the original G-Class, the BJ80 was initially developed for the military, in this case, the People’s Liberation Army. And just when you thought BAIC couldn’t more blatantly take the design of a foreign automaker for its own purposes, it did so again with another SUV. Read on.



BAIC BJ90
The mind reels. This is not a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It’s the BAIC BJ90. And it’s also a Mercedes-Benz GL-Class. Yes, really. The BJ90 is based on the GL-Class as part of an agreement with Mercedes whose parent company Daimler now has a 12 percent stake in BAIC.

Legally use the platform of one automaker and illegally swipe the design of another? Welcome to China. The BJ90’s drivetrain is also all Mercedes. A choice of two engines are offered (sales began earlier this year): a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 with 333 hp and a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with 421 hp. Even the seven-speed automatic and 4Matic all-wheel-drive system is Mercedes-sourced. The interior, not at all shockingly, is from Mercedes, too. The three-pointed silver star, however, has been replaced with BAIC’s logo on the steering wheel.



Hawtai B35
Try not to laugh too much, but the Hawtai B35 was originally a Porsche Cayenne clone back in 2011. Today, it’s a Bentley Bentayga clone, at least up front. Like we said, there is no shame. Underneath its ugly skin (let’s face it), is a first generation Hyundai Santa Fe platform. Power comes from a 2.4-liter four-cylinder with 184 hp or a turbo 1.8-liter with 160 hp. Two gearboxes are on offer: a five-speed manual and a four-speed automatic. Okay. We’re done here. This one is just too pathetic to keep writing about. Moving on…



Geely GE
Perhaps we spoke too soon regarding pathetic. This is the Geely GE, a literal carbon copy of the Rolls-Royce Phantom. Revealed back in 2010, the Geely GE was initially a concept and later went into production in 2014. Supposedly, production ceased earlier this year. Geely has, to its full credit, greatly improved over the past few years by actually getting involved with the global auto industry. Its financial successes enabled it to purchase Volvo and Lotus, for example.

The GE was proof that it was capable of building a luxury car, though not one of its own design. Look closely and even the “Spirit of Ecstasy” hood ornament has been closely copied. But hey, the GE is far cheaper than the Phantom, costing around $45,000.



Jinma JMW 2200
The Jinma JMW 2200 tries so hard to be a BMW i3. Just look at its twin-kidney grille and curved body panels. It’s absolutely horrible to look at. Sorry about that. But it is all-electric, powered by a lead-acid battery providing energy for its three kWh electric motor. Top speed is said to be – wait for it – only 31 mph. It can barely go 75 miles on a single charge. A full recharge requires about seven hours. Why anyone would buy this for regular road use is beyond us. You’d be better off buying a motorcycle or scooter. But if a Chinese golf course is ever looking for more stylish (to an extent) golf cars, we know exactly what it ought to buy. Photos courtesy of Car News China.



Land Wind X7
We actually traveled all the way to the Shanghai Auto Show back in 2017 to see this one in-person. The Land Wind X7’s claim to fame was how much it resembled the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque. Jaguar Land Rover even sued Jiangling Motor for its design rip-off, but the Chinese government put a stop to that. It’s almost as if Jiangling Motor reverse engineered an Evoque, made a few slight tweaks and called it a day. Funnily enough, JLR builds Evoques in China, its first Chinese-built SUV. Jiangling Motor could’ve cared less.

These don't make me angry. I would enjoy driving one of these here in the U.S., although I don't trust Chinese reliability with cars just yet.

[GeneChing]

CHINA RAIDS UNCOVER MORE THAN 50,000 BOTTLES OF FAKE WINE, WORTH $14.4 MILLION
1 Minute Read
Produced by Tim McKirdy / @timmckirdy
Updated on 2018-11-27



Raids in China’s Hebei province have uncovered more than 50,000 bottles of counterfeit wine, with a total value of $14.4 million. The haul included around $1 million worth of fake Penfolds (one of China’s most-popular imported wine brands), as well as around $865,000 of imitation Changyu wines (China’s oldest winery.)

Police were acting on a tip from an authorized Penfolds distributor, The Drinks Business reports, though the date of the raids was not disclosed. Other branded fake wines were also discovered, but their names were not released.

The seizure is the latest in a string of Chinese counterfeit Penfolds busts. In August, around 8,000 bottles were discovered in Liaoning province. In April, police seized roughly 50,000 bottles in Zhengzhou city.

Mike Clarke, CEO of Treasury Wine Estates, which owns Penfolds, spoke out on the counterfeited wines at the beginning of the year, saying: “We’re putting a stop to this. This is nonsense.” But recent busts indicate the task may be even bigger than first expected.

Published: November 27, 2018

The first time I went to China, the tournament I was in was sponsored by a wine company. They made Chinese wine (I still have some) and a western red. Each of us competitor was given complimentary bottles. That red was gawdawful. We drank it anyway.

[GeneChing]

Marvel At China's Own Iron Man Type Movie
Brian Ashcraft
Yesterday 7:05am Filed to: IRON MAN


GIF: 機甲戰神孫悟空
Sure, Iron Man 3 was filmed partly in China, but that’s still a Marvel movie and an American superhero. Tomorrow, the country is releasing its own movie inspired one of its greatest heroes, revamped with an Iron Man-style suit.

This is Armored Warfare God: Sun Wukong. Also known as the Monkey King, Sun Wukong is one of the classic characters of Chinese legend and lore.

陳艾斯
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@AceTaiwan
Follow @AceTaiwan
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我還能說什麼？

中國電影「機甲戰神孫悟空」預告釋出，讓漫威看了也傻眼
https://www.techbang.com/posts/63382...from=home_news …



8:40 PM - 16 Dec 2018

Not only is Sun Wukong the main character in one of China’s greatest works Journey to the West, but he also inspired and spawned Goku in Dragon Ball.

Now, the Sun Wukong character has been reworked for modern Chinese cinema audiences, complete with an Iron Man type suit, monkey motif mask and questionable CGI. It certainly does not appear connected with Marvel!



As ET Today reports, the reaction online in China has been harsh, with Marvel fans calling out the filmmakers.


Screenshot: 東森新聞 CH51


Screenshot: 東森新聞 CH51

Chinese language media has been quick to point out obvious similarities with the Iron Man movies.

Armored Warfare God: Sun Wukong comes out tomorrow in China.

I wanna see this.

THREADS
Armored Warfare God: Sun Wukong
Chinese Counterfeits, Fakes & Knock-Offs
Monkey King

[GeneChing]

This Iron Man knockoff got laughed off the internet
Zheping Huang
JAN 02, 2019
A new CGI movie adaptation of beloved Chinese classic Journey to the West has met an untimely demise. Meant to be a futuristic spin on the mythological classic, the movie instead got laughed off the internet because its armor-clad hero looks a little too much like Iron Man, from Marvel Comics franchise.

The film, titled Armored War God Monkey King, was expected to stream exclusively on Tencent Video over the festive period, but got yanked before debut, as Marvel fans in the world’s largest internet market pelted it online.


Photo: QQ

The promotional trailer of the film drew much flak online after it showed the Monkey King, also known as Sun Wukong, getting a makeover that included wearing a bright red-and-gold armored suit and headgear, with an artificial intelligence-powered assistant and display—similar to that used by Iron Man, the superhero alter ego of business magnate Tony Stark in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Armored War God also features a hi-tech version of antagonist Yang Jian, the three-eyed god in the novel. Yang wears a silver-coloured, full-body armor that people thought was way too similar to War Machine, Iron Man's buddy.


Yang Jian (L) and Sun Wukong, in the trailer. / Photo: QQ

How dare you?

The trailer ignited outrage in China’s internet community. “Stan Lee passed away not that long ago. How dare you?” one wrote on microblogging site Weibo, referring to the late iconic Marvel comic books writer, editor, and publisher.

The film’s producers, Daishu Movie of Beijing, and Guangzhou-based Grandmet Presentation, said they took inspiration from Iron Man, the Transformers film franchise and Japan’s Gundam series of giant robots.


The movie poster, before debut. / Photo: QQ

“We can make armored heroes that belong to China,” the producers said in one of the film’s promotional videos. “No matter how difficult the process is, we’ll carry with us our childhood dreams, presenting to the world a Chinese-made smart armor.”

But that attempt to tap into nationalist sentiment did not prevent their film from being yanked off the schedule of Tencent Video, which also removed the unpopular trailer.

The official Weibo account promoting the film was also deleted.

Neither Tencent nor the producers responded to our request for comment.


Sun Wukong's AI-inspired dashboard, similar to what Iron Man uses in Marvel movies. / Photo: QQ

Sorting out intellectual property rights as online video soars

The widespread criticism of Armored War God has come as intellectual property rights remain a key issue in China’s trade war with the US.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly lashed out at China’s lax IPR protection laws, forced technology transfer and alleged IP theft, saying they cost the United States as much as US$600 billion each year.

Development work on Armored War God started in 2016 and film production took a month, with more than 200 people involved in post-production work, according to a press release cited by Chinese media.

To be sure, China’s online film market has been booming, helped by the wide adoption of online streaming services like Tencent Video, Baidu-backed iQiyi and Youku Tudou, a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding. These platforms are tapping into Chinese consumers’ growing appetite for original content. Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

Still, it is not uncommon for Chinese studios to take inspiration from Hollywood and their domestic peers. For example, a 2016 Chinese online film called Mad Sheila ripped-off the plot and some characters from Oscar-winning post-apocalyptic action film Mad Max: Fury Road.

After Chinese comedy film I Am Not Madame Bovary became a hit two years ago, copycat films followed, sporting titles like I Am Madame Bovary and Who Killed Madame Bovary?.

This story was adapted from an original article published in the South China Morning Post.

Zheping Huang
Zheping is a technology reporter covering cryptocurrency, blockchain and gaming for the South China Morning Post. He is a contributor to Inkstone. Previously he wrote about China for Quartz.

THREADS
Armored Warfare God: Sun Wukong
Chinese Counterfeits, Fakes & Knock-Offs
Monkey King

[GeneChing]

I confess that I'm guilty of this too. For example: got qi?

ADFREAK
A Chinese Washing Machine Brand Blatantly Lifted Design Army’s Stunning Ballet Campaign
New ads circulating online seem copied almost verbatim
By David Griner
|
February 5, 2019


Design Army's 2018 Hong Kong Ballet creative, at left, was copied without credit by Little Swan, one of China's 20 most valuable brands.

Last week, Pum Lefebure began to get a flurry of messages from her contacts in Asia, all with a similar question: “Have you seen this?”

Co-founder and chief creative officer of the celebrated Washington, D.C., agency Design Army, Lefebure has an extensive global network of clients, peers and fans, and some who use Chinese social and messaging apps like WeChat or Weibo had noticed something circulating on the apps that seemed frustratingly familiar.

As she soon learned, a Chinese washing machine brand called Little Swan had launched an ad campaign that was lifted almost 100 percent from Design Army’s 2018 visual rebranding campaign for the Hong Kong Ballet. While many ad campaigns duplicate themes, techniques or visual metaphors drawn from other marketing, this one is rather blatant.

Most of the contacts messaging Lefebure were shocked and infuriated when they saw the copycat campaign. Perhaps more unnervingly, one of her Asian clients saw it and asked if Design Army was behind the new campaign as well.

“It’s OK to be inspired,” Lefebure tells Adweek. “It’s not OK to trace and copy and pull in stuff, then bill your client for the creative work you didn’t really do.”

Here’s a look at how some of the images compare:




In two of the executions, the visuals seem to have been reshot almost exactly as originally designed by Design Army and photographer Dean Alexander. In the version with the dancer doing vertical splits, however, the same photograph seems to have been used with only minor adjustment (namely flipping it to a mirror image).

Little Swan is no small mom-and-pop business lacking the means to build its own ambitious campaign. Its parent company, Midea, says Little Swan was founded in 1958 as China’s first washing machine manufacturer and today is “among the 20 most valuable brands in China, with valuation estimated at 15.02 Billion RMB.” Adweek has reached out to Midea for comment on the similarity between the two campaigns, and we will update this article if we hear back.

It would also be hard for Little Swan to argue it was unaware of the Hong Kong Ballet campaign, which, in addition to running in the same country, was widely featured by news outlets around the world.

For her part, Lefebure is handling the situation with good spirit and, while frustrated, says she holds no grudge against or disrespect for the Chinese marketing community. In fact,

“As creative people, we all get inspired by someone, I understand that,” she says. “But when you start grabbing things, pulling them apart, photoshopping things and reshooting them without trying to hide anything—then you bill the client, put their logo on it, that’s too far.”

She does worry that social media’s sharing economy has created confusion around intellectual property and the ethics of building on someone else’s creative work. Lefebure hopes this incident will be used as an educational lesson for young designers and marketers.

“I’m not sure that kind of education is being communicated to the future generation,” she says. “I hope someone tells them this isn’t right.”


David Griner
@griner
David Griner is creative and innovation editor for Adweek. He's been covering agencies, creativity, technology and marketing innovation for more than a decade and is host of Adweek's podcast.

[GeneChing]

Woah. A White Rabbit unauthorized 'knock-off' by a Los Angeles ice cream maker.

White Rabbit ice cream is a hit in Los Angeles
Shanghai-based candy manufacturer calls the flavor 'unauthorized'
by Jethro Kang March 5, 2019 in Food


Photo via Food & Wine.

An ice cream made with the famous Chinese candy White Rabbit has proven so popular in Los Angeles over the past Lunar New Year despite it being “unauthorized,” said the Shanghai-based sweets manufacturer.

Wanderlust Creamery in Los Angeles created the flavor with website Foodbeast using 1.3 pieces of the iconic candy in each scoop, including the edible paper wrap, which is mixed into a milk and butter base, said Wanderlust co-founder Jon-Patrick Lopez. The candy wrapper is also used around the cone.

The ice cream debuted over Chinese New Year and was originally planned as a special throughout February. Between February 1 and 20, Wanderlust sold 50 gallons of White Rabbit ice cream, then sold 50 more gallons in three days as news soon spread via Facebook, Instagram, and WeChat.



Wanderlust now plans to extend the offering to March, but they’re having difficulty sourcing the White Rabbit candy. Stock is not readily available, and rival ice cream makers are also creating White Rabbit flavors and competing for supply.

They might soon encounter yet another obstacle: White Rabbit manufacturer Guan Sheng Yuan, which has been making the candy since 1959, told Shanghai Morning Post that the product was created without authorization and the company has not “cooperated with any relevant parties.” Their US agent is currently investigating for possible brand infringement.

Yet China Daily reported that Guan Sheng Yuan was “inspired by the creation of the White Rabbit ice cream in the US.”

While Wanderlust has inspired copycats in the US as well as in Malaysia and the Philippines, they aren’t the first ice cream maker to dream up a White Rabbit flavor. Singapore dessert cafe Sunday Folks introduced a similar ice cream last November called Little White Rabbit.

I'd be all over this if I wasn't lactose intolerant and pre-diabetic.

[GeneChing]

Letter from Lishui
October 26, 2009 Issue
Chinese Barbizon
Painting the outside world.
By Peter Hessler


Chen Meizi and Hu Jianhui at their gallery, which specializes in art for the foreign market. Scenes of Venice and Dutch towns, which Chen refers to as “Water City” and “Holland Street,” are popular.Photograph by Mark Leong

In the countryside southwest of the city of Lishui, where the Da River crosses a sixth-century stone weir, the local government announced, four years ago, that it was founding a Chinese version of the Barbizon. The original French Barbizon School developed during the first half of the nineteenth century, in response to the Romantic movement, among painters working at the edge of the Fontainebleau Forest. Back then, the French artists celebrated rural scenes and peasant subjects. This wasn’t exactly the mood in Lishui: like most cities in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province, the place was focussed on urban growth; there was a new factory district, and the export economy was then booming. But the local Communist Party cadres wanted the city to become even more outward-looking, and they liked the foreign cachet of the Barbizon. They also figured that it would be good business: art doesn’t require much raw material, and it’s popular overseas. They referred to their project as Lishui’s Babisong, and they gave it the official name of the Ancient Weir Art Village. One Party slogan described it as “A Village of Art, a Capital of Romance, a Place for Idleness.”

In order to attract artists, the government offered free rent in some old riverside buildings for the first year, with additional subsidies to follow. Painters arrived immediately; soon, the village had nearly a dozen private galleries. Most people came from China’s far south, where there was already a flourishing industry of art for the foreign market. Buyers wanted cheap oil paintings, many of which were destined for tourist shops, restaurants, and hotels in distant countries. For some reason, the majority of artists who settled Lishui’s Barbizon specialized in cityscapes of Venice. The manager of Hongye, the largest of the new galleries, told me that it had a staff of thirty painters, and that its main customer was a European-based importer with an insatiable appetite for Venetian scenes. Every month, he wanted a thousand Chinese paintings of the Italian city.

Another small gallery, Bomia, had been opened by a woman named Chen Meizi and her boyfriend, Hu Jianhui. The first time I met Chen, she had just finished a scene of Venice, and now she was painting a Dutch street scene from what looked like the eighteenth century. A Russian customer had sent a postcard and asked her to copy it. The painting was twenty inches by twenty-four, and Chen told me that she would sell it for about twenty-five dollars. Like most people in the Ancient Weir Art Village, she described Venice as Shui Cheng, “Water City,” and referred to Dutch scenes as Helan Jie, “Holland Street.” She said that over the past half year she had painted this particular Holland Street as many as thirty times. “All the pictures have that big tower in it,” she said.

I told her that it was a church—the steeple rose in the distance, at the end of a road bordered by brick houses with red tile roofs.

“I thought it might be a church, but I wasn’t sure,” she said. “I knew it was important because whenever I make a mistake they send it back.”

Through trial and error, she had learned to recognize some of the landmark buildings of Europe. She had no idea of the names of St. Mark’s Basilica and the Doge’s Palace, but she knew these places mattered, because even the tiniest mistake resulted in rejection. She worked faster on less iconic scenes, because customers didn’t notice slight errors. On the average, she could finish a painting in under two days.

Chen was in her early twenties, and she had grown up on a farm near Lishui; as a teen-ager, she learned to paint at an art school. She still had a peasant’s directness—she spoke in a raspy voice and laughed at many of my questions. I asked her which of her pictures she liked the most, and she said, “I don’t like any of them.” She didn’t have a favorite painter; there wasn’t any particular artistic period that had influenced her. “That kind of art has no connection at all with what we do,” she said. The Barbizon concept didn’t impress her much. The government had commissioned some European-style paintings of local scenery, but Chen had no use for any of it. Like many young Chinese from the countryside, she had already had her fill of bucolic surroundings. She stayed in the Ancient Weir Art Village strictly because of the free rent, and she missed the busy city of Guangzhou, where she had previously lived. In the meantime, she looked the part of an urban convert. She had long curly hair; she dressed in striking colors; she seemed to wear high heels whenever she was awake. On workdays, she tottered on stilettos in front of her easel, painting gondolas and churches.

Hu Jianhui, Chen’s boyfriend, was a soft-spoken man with glasses and a faint crooked mustache that crossed his lip like a calligrapher’s slip. Once a month, he rolled up all their finished paintings and took a train down to Guangzhou, where there was a big art market. That was how they encountered customers; none of the buyers ever came to the Ancient Weir Art Village. For the most part, foreigners wanted Holland Streets and the Water City, but occasionally they sent photographs of other scenes to be converted into art. Hu kept a sample book in which a customer could pick out a picture, give an ID number, and order a full-size oil painting on canvas. HF-3127 was the Eiffel Tower. HF-3087 was a clipper ship on stormy seas. HF-3199 was a circle of Native Americans smoking a peace pipe. Chen and Hu could rarely identify the foreign scenes that they painted, but they had acquired some ideas about national art tastes from their commissions.

“Americans prefer brighter pictures,” Hu told me. “They like scenes to be lighter. Russians like bright colors, too. Koreans like them to be more subdued, and Germans like things that are grayer. The French are like that, too.”

Chen flipped to HF-3075: a snow-covered house with glowing lights. “Chinese people like this kind of picture,” she said. “Ugly! And they like this one.” HF-3068: palm trees on a beach. “It’s stupid, something a child would like. Chinese people have no taste. French people have the best taste, followed by Russians, and then the other Europeans.” I asked her how Americans stacked up. “Americans are after that,” she said. “We’ll do a painting and the European customer won’t buy it, and then we’ll show it to a Chinese person, and he’ll say, ‘Great!’ ”

Lishui is a third-tier Chinese factory town, with a central population of around two hundred and fifty thousand, and, in a place like that, the outside world is both everywhere and nowhere at all. In the new development zone, assembly lines produce goods for export, but there isn’t much direct foreign investment. There aren’t any Nike factories, or Intel plants, or signs that say DuPont; important brands base themselves in bigger cities. Lishui companies make pieces of things: zippers, copper wiring, electric-outlet covers. The products are so obscure that you can’t tell much from the signs that hang outside factory gates: Jinchao Industry Co., Ltd.; Huadu Leather Base Cloth Co., Ltd. At the Lishui Sanxing Power Machinery Co., Ltd., the owners have posted their sign in English, but they did so from right to left, the way Chinese traditionally do with characters:

dtl ,.oc yrenihcam rewop gnixnas iuhsil

It’s rare to see a foreign face in Lishui. Over a period of three years, I visited the city repeatedly, talking to people in the export industry, but I never met a foreign buyer. Products are sent elsewhere for final assembly, some passing through two or three levels of middlemen before they go abroad; there isn’t any reason for a European or an American businessman to visit. But despite the absence of foreigners the city has been shaped almost entirely by globalization, and traces of the outside world can be seen everywhere. When Lishui’s first gym opened, it was called the Scent of a Woman, for the Al Pacino movie. Once, I met a demolition-crew worker who had a homemade tattoo on his left arm that said “KENT.” He told me he’d done it himself as a kid, after noticing that American movie gangsters have tattoos. I asked why he’d chosen that particular word, and he said, “It’s from the cigarette brand in your country.” Another time, I interviewed a young factory boss who wore a diamond earring in the shape of the letter “K.” His girlfriend had an “O”: whenever they were together, and the letters lined up, everything was all right.

The degree of detail often impressed me. The outside world might be distant, but it wasn’t necessarily blurred; people caught discrete glimpses of things from overseas. In many cases, these images seemed slightly askew—they were focussed and refracted, like light bent around a corner. Probably it had something to do with all the specialization. Lishui residents learned to see the world in parts, and these parts had a strange clarity, even when they weren’t fully understood. One factory technician who had never formally studied English showed me a list of terms he had memorized:

Padomide Br. Yellow E-8GMX

Sellanyl Yellow N-5GL

Padocid Violet NWL

Sellan Bordeaux G-P

Padocid Turquoise Blue N-3GL

Padomide Rhodamine

continued next post