Shanzhai culture, Dafen art, and copyrights

China is generally perceived as the manufacturer of the world. Whereas “created in China” has become one prime focus of national cultural policy (Keane 2013), the label “Made in China” continues to proliferate in global stories about abuses of labor in the production of iPhones and the massive production of steel and coal. Dovetailing with this narrative of China as the world’s factory is the image of China as a nation of copiers. After China’s entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, the nation aspired to a more stringent implementation of its copyright laws—performed at times by the public burning of pirated DVDs. However, from the production of imitation smartphones and designer clothes, to the building of look-a-like architecture, and the faking of events, copying practices still persist. While “fake” remains the prevailing term in English, particularly in the legal language of intellectual property, in China the popular qualifier is shanzhai. There are shanzhai iPhones, shanzhai Paul Smiths, shanzhai White Houses, shanzhai movie stars, and shanzhai CCTV Spring Festival Galas (Zhang and Fung 2013).